[00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome to the Equip Cast, a weekly podcast for the Archdiocese of Omaha. I'm your host, Jim Janssen. Now let's dive into some encouragement and inspiration to equip you to live your faith and to be fruitful in your mission. Let's go!

[00:00:23] Everybody, Welcome to Equip Cast Coaches Corner, where I break down important topics to equip you and your team for mission in your family, in your church, and in your ministry. Today I'm gonna talk to you about how to work from rest. Or, how Jesus teaches us to work. This episode is dedicated to Ms. Rita McCauley. More on her at the end.

[00:00:43] Okay, so I'll start with a true confession. In my own life, I tend to think that rest has to be earned. Right? Once I've got everything done, everything checked off the to do list, then I can finally rest. And sometimes, I just find myself working for the weekends and finally getting a chance to rest.

[00:01:03] But that is not the Christian vision, right? Sunday is not the last day of the week. It's the first day of the week in the Christian calendar, right? We start from rest the way Jesus started from rest. Think about it. Jesus is spending all of eternity in heaven with the Father and the Spirit rejoicing, resting together in perfect communion before the incarnation.

[00:01:30] Then he takes on flesh, and he lives with the Holy Family for 30 years. And yeah, he's working. He's making tables, but it's a beautiful slow small-town pace. I know small towns aren't ideal, but you get the idea, right? I mean, he's not working at a crazy frenetic pace that we occasionally see him working very, very fast and very hard in his active ministry.

[00:01:56] His work was an overflow of glorious rest. And that's the way it's supposed to be for us. We're not supposed to be working for rest. We're supposed to be working from rest. Our Sabbath rest is the first day of the week. We see Jesus, even when he gets to his active ministry, and clearly, he and the apostles, there's some moments where they barely have time to eat.

[00:02:20] He takes extended time away for silence in prayer, and then he takes Sabbath rest, and he's living simplicity. And all of those practices are really important to being able to work from rest. But I want to focus in on one in particular, and that is, I want to focus in on Jesus's pace. Jesus moved slow. He could have come at any time in history, right?

[00:02:46] Speed trains or like a helicopter, but he chooses to come at a time, at a place where he would walk almost everywhere. And the few times that he's in a vehicle, he's in a fishing boat. I mean, it's not like it's a speed boat. I mean, he never seems to be in a hurry. Even when people's lives hang in the balance.

[00:03:04] Now, I get it. If they die, he can just bring them back to life. But the point is, like, he's not in a hurry. In fact, you could make the case that the only time we see him run is in the character of the loving father who runs to his repentant, prodigal son. But what are we running for? When we run, are we running to save souls?

[00:03:28] Are we running to save our reputation, or to save money, or to save time? Is that the heart of the Father? I've got two things for you. I've got a scripture verse, and I've got a simple practice, and then I'm going to spend the rest of the time trying to convince you that it's worth it to slow down, because it is so counterintuitive to our culture and the way we live.

[00:03:50] Okay, here's your scripture, Isaiah 30: 15, “In returning and rest you shall be saved”. Now, if you go to Isaiah chapter 30, verse 15, and you read the context around it, you'll see that the Lord is lamenting that his people are addicted to speed when they feel just the least bit frightened or anxious. They run to speed and other things to save them.

[00:04:22] And as a loving father, he's calling out, no, returning and rest, quietness and trust. That shall be your strength. That is how you will be saved. It's a great verse, Isaiah 30, 15. I encourage you to memorize it. In my own life, the Lord uses that verse. He brings it back up when I'm, when I'm starting to run to speed or something else.

[00:04:45] To save me, he often brings that back to mind and helps remind me where my salvation actually lies. And here's the practice. It's really simple here. Choose the long line, or the slow lane in traffic, or maybe the slow person. Maybe it's a little person. Maybe it's an old person. Maybe it's a coworker, but like, choose the slow as a spiritual discipline.

[00:05:11] I promise for some of us, this is like the hardest fast we could possibly do, but it's so good. If I can, I want to inspire you to see the benefit of slowing down because it is worth it. And as I reflected on this. It came up with four R's, uh, I didn't mean that they were all going to be R's, but turns out they were.

[00:05:33] So here they are. Relationships, Reflection, Repentance, and Renewal. Okay, relationships. Relationships just take time. They're not efficient, especially if we're willing to be in relationship with the very young and the very old. They just don't move at the same pace as the rest of us, and that's really good.

[00:05:54] They have something extremely precious to offer us in who they are, and just as much because they force us to slow down. Relationships require us to slow down. Okay, reflection. Not all truths that are necessary for our salvation and living a good life are immediately and intuitively grasped. They take some reflection, right?

[00:06:21] Some of the most profound wisdom takes time to marinate in us because it's counterintuitive. It's just not obvious at first. It's not the way we typically think. And we need time to notice the patterns in our lives, especially when we're close to them. There is no wisdom without reflection, and there's no reflection without slowing down.

[00:06:43] Okay, repentance. There are few things more fundamental in the Christian life than repentance, but repentance also takes time. Now, it's true that sometimes we know our wrongs in a flash of insight and grace, and we're given the grace to fully turn away, but I think just as often, it takes time for us to come to recognize where we've been wrong, and to let the conviction to turn around grow in us.

[00:07:10] The grace that we need to go another way to repent just takes time, and we need to slow down to let it really sink in. Okay, finally, renewal. So, I'm a fan of power naps. Power naps are great, but they don't replace the need for eight hours of good sleep, and they don't replace the need for vacations and Sabbath rest on the weekend.

[00:07:35] And real renewal? I mean, real renewal just requires us to slow down. What is sleep other than our body's way of slowing us down? I'm going to pray for us. Lord, nobody had more responsibility on their shoulders than you. Every single soul, all of humanity, all of creation hanging in the balance and you moved slow.

[00:08:03] Jesus, we beg you in your mercy that you would grant us the grace to imitate your slowness. That we would be able to work from rest, that we would find the peace and joy and freedom in the rest you offer, and that that rest would inspire our labors and our service to you. Amen. Okay. So, I said, uh, at the start here that today's episode is dedicated to Ms. Rita Jean Macaulay.

[00:08:36] Miss Rita, as she was known by her students, uh, was a faithful listener to the EquipCast. She just passed away. May God rest her soul. Miss Rita was a wife, and a mother, and a preschool teacher. She taught Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. And if you're not familiar with Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, it is a catechetical method of teaching the faith to children,

[00:08:59] to young people, blended with the Montessori learning method. I mean, it is the epitome of slowness, and it's fabulous. It brings out the work of God in the hearts and minds of little children. And it's, it's wonderful. And it really was a mark of who she was. Rita was one of the most childlike persons I've ever known.

[00:09:21] She moved with slowness and deliberateness. She let the children come to her, and she loved them. And she let the children teach her how to slow down and how to hear the voice of the good shepherd. So, for Ms. Rita Jean McCauley, may she rest in peace. If anything today in the conversation kind of stirred in you a highly recommend the book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer.

[00:09:48] The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry is fantastic. Some of what I shared today comes from that book and John Mark Comer's writing. I have read and listened to it three or four different times. There's just a handful of books that I could say that about. I love it. True confession. I may have listened to it on one and a half times speed, which is probably wrong, but regardless, I love it.

[00:10:11] I recommend it still trying to apply it in my life. Um, highly recommend the ruthless elimination of hurry, by John Mark Comer. I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can respond back in the chat at Equip.archomaha.org. Again, that's Equip.ArchOmaha.org. Thanks for listening to the EquipCast. We hope this episode has inspired you to live your faith and equipped you to be fruitful in your mission.

[00:10:36] Stay connected with us by going to Equip.Archomaha.org. God bless and see you next time.