Have you ever had one of those weeks where you completely resonated with Solomon when he wrote Ecclesiastes? “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”

These past couple weeks have honestly been kind of boring for someone who always likes to stay busy and engaged. Granted, I’ve had a couple of event filled weekends, but they seemed to be a lot of monotonous repetition, like setting up a PVC maze for a church event. How are we supposed to stay engaged and energized when everything seems to be boring? (sorry mom, I know how much you hate that word)

Honestly, I think it stems from a lack of contentment, at least in my own life. I’ve become so saturated with entertainment, that if I don’t have a screen in front of my eyes or music in my ears I feel lost. How can we continue to strive ahead when we’re always so distracted?

As a self-confessed techie and extrovert to the extreme, I do find it hard to sit down and rest. Yet throughout Scripture I see so many instances where we are commanded to sit down and rest. (see Psalm 27, 130 and Isaiah 40) Even Jesus, before his earthly ministry took 40 days of solitude in the wilderness. I so often struggle with this idea. I always want to have people around me and be having a fantastic time together. Even with my extroverted ways I’ve begun to see the importance and necessity of both taking a Sabbath and taking times of solitude.

What does this look like? Well for me, that means I have a day where I have absolutely nothing scheduled. I enjoy my rest, I’ll clean up around the house, I’ll spend time reading, catching up on some TV shows, talking to friends and family, honestly whatever I feel like doing. I’m very blessed in that the church I work in gives me 2 days off, 1 of which I try to use to clean and run errands and the other I try to use as a Sabbath doing only the above activities. What are some ways you’ve found to take breaks and Sabbaths in your life? Do you think it’s important to be taking regular scheduled times of rest?