Four Lies and One Truth About Rest

Johanna Stamps explores four lies we tell ourselves that keep us stuck in busyness.  

This week, I’ve been in the company of five people who needed rest—badly—but refused to take it.

I was one of those people.   

In my worst moment, I just sat there, staring at my screen, refusing to look away. I was working on something, but the pieces just weren’t coming into place, no matter what I tried. I was determined to press forward to my finish line—until I couldn’t anymore.   

I realized, finally, what I was listening to, and believing, lies about rest. As I listened to other people’s hearts, in the days that followed, I heard four lies that keep us from taking the rest we truly need.  

We’re bound by lies about rest. Here's a way out. 

What follows are those lies about rest and the words we whisper to ourselves that keep us from taking the rest we need. Then, there is the one truth that simply pulls us from the depths of the hole we have created for ourselves.   

Lie 1: If I don’t finish this task, I’m a failure.  

Sure, there are deadlines, but if I’m honest, most of the time, those deadlines are self-inflicted. I can hear the tasks on my list as if they are speaking to me, taunting me. It’s like the lines on the list sit glaring at me with judgment each moment I don’t tend to them. As the moments tick by, all I can think is, “Here I go again! It’s as if I can never get ahead of things. I’m always on the backfoot.”   

As I live under this lie, I’m burdened by an unforgiving and arbitrary timeline.   

Lie 2: There just isn’t enough time.  

I feel trapped by time. I see the mountain of tasks that, once accomplished, can get me to success, and if I don’t start checking off my list, I’ll clearly never get there. I tell myself that each moment is precious, and I need to conquer it. If I don’t use my time wisely, I’m doomed for failure. And if I took time to rest, I would lose precious moments for productivity, which would only set myself back hours—if not days—from reaching my goals.   

I am burdened by the concept of time so much so that it is choking the joy out of my work. 

Lie 3: I can just keep going. I don’t need to take a break.   

I tell myself that I don’t need to rest. Let me just grab a coffee and keep going. If I finish this, then there are three other things that maybe I can finish afterward. Once I’m done with those tasks, I can jump on my household duties and finish with my taxes. I better keep going, or I’ll never finish. Forget about taking a much-needed breath—my list needs more life than I do.  

I am burdened by this never-ending cycle.   

Lie 4: Rest is for someone who has completed their work. It’s a reward.  

Once I get some momentum going, and I accomplish tasks on my list, instead of giving my body and brain a break to recharge, I feel like I need to keep running forward. I tell myself that I can’t stop now. I haven’t finished. I’ll take time off and celebrate when I’m done. Rest feels so much better when I have finished everything on the list and nothing is looming over me. Rest is a sweet reward for when I have completed the tasks in front of me.   

I am burdened by a disordered understanding of rest.  

The truth: Pure joy is possible in work if we pour into Jesus, not pressure.   

Recently, I jokingly said to a friend, “You know, the Holy Spirit is probably better at taking care of me than I am at taking care of myself.” If I lived by my own timetable, I’d run into my wall of exhaustion every few days. Instead, it’s in the resting and refueling that my life is reordered appropriately and I’m able to move forward joyfully.   

For some reason, I constantly read this Scripture verse for someone else and not myself:   

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)  

Instead of realizing that this applies to me, I think about the people who are struggling almost unbelievably. I think of the families inflicted by food shortages in far-off places or young children standing at the border with fear in their eyes. I think this passage is for them. Surely their burdens and weariness mean more to God than my self-inflicted exhaustion. 

And yet, here’s the real truth: God can’t use me if I’m so self-focused, so obsessed with the tasks in front of me. It’s only in that place of true rest that He has the room to inspire me. It’s in that place of quiet that He’s able to whisper into my ear with words of love and prompt me to love others more than I love my timeliness.  

The only to-do list that matters

There’s only one checklist that really matters when you start to focus too much on work, and this is it: 

• Step away from what you are doing.  
• Spend time engaging with things you love—things that bring you joy. 
• Spend time in silence with God to be refueled). 
• Spend time giving to others. 

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Copyright 2024 Johanna Stamps
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