In an attempt to keep track of ourselves and all that we’ve committed to, my husband and I have been doing a calendar check in on Sunday nights. I love this; he tolerates it. But thank goodness we do this, because without it I’d completely lose track of holiday time off. Josh works an administrative job that includes federal holiday time off as well as good vacation and sick time off. Almost always, one of these holidays come around and I say, “Oh right! You’re not working on Monday!”1
What works best about these holidays is he doesn’t choose them. It’s just expected and planned that this is time off.
This matter of fact nature is the key, I believe, to rest. If we wait until we want to rest or even need to rest, things go awry.
I know this from my own working life. I do my very best to keep a weekly Sabbath day where I absolutely do not work. I try to include all types of work in this day, which means no cleaning the bathroom, any emails, or random phone calls with church folks. Keeping this scheduled means there are weeks where it’s this Sabbath day and I actually really would like to work. But I don’t.
Not working, and keeping up the expectation and plan to not work, allows me to experience a few things that continue to radically shape my working life. I get bored. I get frustrated. I have to watch things go on without me. I have to recognize, even for a tiny moment, that I’m not really that essential.
I rest, sure. But I mostly orient myself appropriately back into my life.
I’m the type of person who can get really anxious and worried about all the things I’m supposed to be doing. Email and constant contact via my phone doesn’t help that. Being able to have access to my church work even when I’m not at the church building is nice when I don’t want to drive, but not nice when I’m trying to keep that twenty hour a week boundary. You all know this experience. Everything is everywhere all at once.
The lie is that I have to be always connected and always working. A day of rest reminds me it’s okay if I just exist every so often.
What I’m baking
My latest round of cookies I baked for my congregation2 came straight from the bag of Nestle chocolate chunks, but it was a good one. You can find the recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk cookies here. I did include the peanuts, which felt a little weird to me but ended up being a great addition.
Find me elsewhere
There’s an adapted version of one of my previous Substack posts over on the United Church of Christ’s Vital Signs and Statistics blog. I’m a bit of a fangirl of the whole blog, so take a look for my post but some other really excellent piece. Take a second look at my pie charts in The Workweek of Part-Time Pastor in Three Charts.
What life looks like
He is absolutely not working today because it’s President’s Day. Should you be working? Think about it.
I’m baking cookies every week for my church until I get tired of it. I love to bake and they love to eat cookies. So far the favorite has been a gluten free oatmeal cookie which is one of the greatest surprise of my life.