Serving Bread

I don’t get sick all too often. I usually get sick once a year for a 24 hour period. That has usually been my flirtation with a cold, flu or viruses in general until the past twelve months. I have crashed with a fever three times in the past twelve months. Some of that probably has to do with my three year old who inevitably catches and nurtures viruses from school.

But this year has taught me to pay attention to my body when I’m sick. As I was laying in bed this past week in misery, I’ve thought of the purpose of being sick. Sickness reminds me that the human body is frail and susceptible to all kinds of viruses. Sickness reassures me of my mortality but also of God’s grace—that this is not God’s intention for humanity.

But how is being sick a leadership insight? Being sick forces me to slow down. I’m not very good at slowing down. I get bored easily and I cannot imagine life without doing. Newton’s first law scares me: “A body at rest remains at rest.” My fear in resting my body or my soul is that it will remain in restindefinately . The proverbs warn against the foolishness of laziness and though slowing down or resting is not the same as being lazy, it is difficult for me to separate them.

So from time to time, I need to be forced to rest my body. From time to time, I need to walk in repentance from the deceptions of busyness. Sometimes I wonder whether God has a way of forcing me to rest when I ignore all the other signs to pursue rest.

Resting is an important element of leading myself and leading others. My children teach me how rest and leadership are tied together. They sleep for 12-16 hours a day because their growing body needs the rest. In fact, their physical growth is happening during their sleep. My rest and my growth are tied together. I cannot be reflective or even have desire to do ministry unless I find myself well rested and well loved by God.