Over the summer, we’ve written several articles to help us think about our relationship with rest, sabbath, and play. As we’ve talked with wise and seasoned marketplace leaders, we’ve learned that healthy rhythms of work and rest contribute to their well-being and their effectiveness. We’ve also observed how play can inspire creativity and provide many of the types of rest we need to flourish. 

So, here’s a recap of the articles on rest, sabbath, and play. We hope you continue to integrate these three rhythms into your life. Happy reading!

“Resources for Rest”

Want 3 podcast episodes, 4 books, and 6 articles to help you think about rest, sabbath, and play? Chelsea Logan kicked off the summer with this robust list of resources.

“As humans, we tend to forget that we have very real limitations—physiological, mental, and spiritual limitations. Even Jesus, though both fully God and fully man, had human limits. As a man, Jesus had to sleep, eat, and get away from time to time to be alone and pray. We cannot do it all, and we weren’t designed to do it all.” – Chelsea Logan

https://depree.org/resources-for-rest/

“Reassessing Our Relationship with Work and Rest”

Did you know that the Exodus narrative has important insights on work and rest? Michaela O’Donnell offers a thoughtful reflection on the differences between God’s kingdom and Pharoah’s kingdom in this article originally published in FULLER Magazine. 

“In this, we see that in God’s kingdom there is a cadence that feels so wildly different from Pharaoh’s. If Pharaoh’s kingdom is an either/or reality, God’s is a both/and kingdom. There is both an expectation of work and a promise of rest. Both an invitation to make and one to pause. Both an opportunity to participate in what God is doing and to remember that we are not God.” – Michaela O’Donnell

https://depree.org/work-and-rest/

“Five Ways (Plus One) to Manage Stress”

Looking for some practical ways to manage work-related stress? Meryl Herr offers 5 common ways and then adds one more. Get the details and some strategies in this article.

“Managing our stress is a matter of stewardship. It’s a way we care for ourselves so that we can offer ourselves to God and in service of others.” – Meryl Herr

https://depree.org/five-ways-to-manage-stress/

“Love Is Not a To-Do List”

Has loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength ever felt like a neverending and totally exhausting to-do list? Jesus shows us that it doesn’t have to be this way. Learn more in Meryl Herr’s article describing what we can learn from Jesus’ rhythms of work and rest.

“What we see from Jesus’ life, work, and leadership is that it’s okay, even good, to slow down and rest. We can lay down our to-do list. Loving God and neighbor does not require our striving to the point of utter depletion. At the foundation of the world, God gave us the gift of rest in the form of a weekly Sabbath. And we can experience the delight of Sabbath rest in myriad ways through the course of our week.” – Meryl Herr

https://depree.org/love-is-not-a-to-do-list/

“The Types of Rest We Need”

What type of rest do you need? Following Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith’s recommendations that we need seven different types of rest, we conducted a simple survey among our audience to discover the types of rest you need. Read the results plus a few strategies for getting the top two types of rest most need in this article. 

“The results revealed that mental and emotional rest are needed more than the other types. Four out of five respondents ranked mental rest in their top three most needed types of rest. Over two-thirds ranked emotional rest in their top three. By comparison, only two out of five ranked physical rest in their top three.” – Meryl Herr

https://depree.org/the-types-of-rest-we-need/

“Play, Imagination, and Creative Work”

Do you ever feel reluctant to play? Luke Bobo gives us two reasons why adults don’t play and then anchors the goodness and freedom to play in the love of God. 

“The deep, constant love of our Father means we are secure in him, and this gives us the freedom to play. When we know that we are deeply loved by God, our Father, we will clothe ourselves in childlike innocence, and get lost in play, pretending, and daydreaming, and I believe this will lead to imagineering and ultimately birth creative work acts.” – Luke Bobo

https://depree.org/play-imagination-and-creative-work/

“Work, Rest, and Play”

Finding it difficult to make space for work and play into our busy lives? Uli Chi reminds us of our need for rest and play and gives us two practical suggestions for how to incorporate both.

“We don’t have to earn God’s love by what we accomplish. Nor do we have to anxiously try to ‘play God’ by taking on all the work that God alone can do. Instead, work is meant to be an expression of our love for God within the limits God has given us as human beings.” – Uli Chi

https://depree.org/work-rest-and-play/

“Leading Through Anxiety”

Anxiety can be a rest robber—for those of us who experience it and those of us working for anxious leaders. Michaela O’Donnell offers some reflections on leading through anxiety in this excerpt adapted from her upcoming book Life in Flux: Navigational Skills to Guide and Ground You in an Ever-Changing World co-authored with Lisa Slayton.

“Whether you’re a boss, a parent, a friend, or a baseball fan, we all have people entrusted to our care. If you show up anxious, it fosters even more anxiety. If you show up in a non-anxious way, it creates space for other’s fears. It sets the stage for deep breaths and human connection, and for people to reach their potential and learn and contribute in meaningful ways.” – Michaela O’Donnell

https://depree.org/leading-through-anxiety/

“Three Ways to Meaningfully Waste Time”

Do you have an aversion to wasting time? Do you feel guilty when you slow down because you’re not being productive? Chelsea Logan brings us a new perspective on wasting time as she reflects on the creation account in Genesis 1. And she gives us some tips on how to waste time at work, in our relationships, and with God. 

“We see that for six days God works creatively, productively, and very efficiently. But then something different happens on the seventh day: God rests. One could argue that God even wastes time. Because on that seventh day, not much seems to happen. In fact, it’s quite clear that God doesn’t work or create anything on that seventh day. From a productivity standpoint, this day is a bust. This day is inefficient.” – Chelsea Logan

https://depree.org/three-ways-to-waste-time/

Banner image by Getty Images on Unsplash.