I remember the first time my friend Tim Elmore told me a story about a baker.
His bakery was the hottest new business in town and there was a line out the door every morning. Due to the high demand from his customers, the baker worked harder and harder each day. As time went by, it took more and more effort to keep up with the increased demand from customers.
One morning, the line began forming before the scheduled opening time. As the opening time came and went, the line grew longer. Soon it was five minutes, then ten, then fifteen minutes past the hour. The customers grew restless and frustrated. Where was the baker?
Finally, a friend of the baker arrived, and he began to speak with the people at the front of the line. Soon, they headed for their cars. As the word passed down the line, gasps were heard and tears began to fall.
The baker was dead, passing away overnight. When the customers began to inquire to the cause of death, they heard the most shocking news of all.
He had starved to death.
Starved? Everyone wondered how a baker surrounded by food could starve to death. The answer to the question was one they would ponder for a long time. It’s a lesson I’ve been thinking about in the nearly fifteen years since Tim told me this story.
The baker starved to death because he was so focused on feeding everyone else that he never stopped to feed himself.
If you were honest, do you have a little of that baker in you today?
We Know the Answer, But We Struggle to Live It
The last time I was on a flight, the attendant mentioned this truth. Of course, despite the sarcasm and humor she added to the routine directions regarding seat belts, lighted signs, and oxygen masks, trying to keep our attention was truly a losing battle. Many of us were about to tune her out as she went through pre-flight instructions. Including the one where she warns us to “Put on your mask before you try to help those around you with theirs.”
Just like we know the best way to handle ourselves when an oxygen mask is required on a plane, all of us know the importance of taking care of ourselves before we try to care for others.
But the problem is we so easily slip into a pattern where we’re consumed with others’ masks even while we’re suffocating. We’re often the ones running around feeding everyone else even while we’re starving.
The Overlooked Words of Jesus
In this new year, our life with God includes a strong calling to self-care.
In the Great Commandment, recorded in Matthew 22, Jesus told his audience that the first and greatest commandment was to love God with our whole being - heart, soul, mind, and strength. He went on to say the second commandment was like it - to love your neighbor as you love yourself.
This passage often gets summarized as a command to “love God and love people.” That’s not incorrect, but it is incomplete.
We’re called to love God with our whole being and to love people even as we’re loving ourselves. In fact, based upon how I read this passage, I think it’s impossible to love God and love people if you don’t love yourself.
Starting a New Year with Self-care
1. Acknowledge that God is unlimited, and you are not.
In Job 36, Elihu speaks to the famous suffering one. “Look, God is all-powerful. Who is a teacher like him? No one can tell him what to do, or say to him, ‘You have done wrong.’” God is an unlimited resource. He never runs out - he can never be depleted. But as Pastor Dale Burke has so wisely written, “We are limited resources.” We’ll never begin caring for ourselves well, until we acknowledge that we worship an unlimited God and we are so very limited ourselves.
2. Understand that self-care is a stewardship issue.
As a driven, ambitious person, rest is not natural to me. In fact, self-care often feels like a waste or at least indulgent. Mike Foster writes to people like me when he notes, “Self-care isn’t selfish; it’s strategic.” Foster is echoing the words of the Apostle Paul, who wrote, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So, you must honor God with your body.”
3. Accept God’s invitation to rest.
In Psalm 23, David writes, “The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.” In the translation I grew up reading, the text says “he makes me lie down in green pastures.” A wise mentor of mine once told me, “You can either choose to lay down and rest or, God will make you lie down. I’ll let you guess which one is easier and less painful.”
God has already done the work of redeeming us. And He invites us to rest from the striving which leads to us becoming starving bakers.
4. Identify a healthy pattern of serving others and caring for yourself.
As a young pastor, I remember attending a conference where Pastor Rick Warren shared how he’d been able to flourish in ministry for several decades. He said, “To avoid burnout, divert daily (whatever relaxes), withdraw weekly (a Sabbath), and abandon annually (disconnect completely).”
That model outlines a healthy pattern for us. We need daily habits which relax us and enable us to unwind the pressure valve which builds while we care for others. We need a weekly time where we can rest with God and allow Him to refresh us in deep places. Jesus told us, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.”
Finally, we need moments on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis where we abandon our burdens entirely and enter into an extended rest. In those times, we’re not running from our responsibilities; we’re pursuing God and seeking Him that He might care for us in the deepest places.
We need to remember that when God created man, the first full day Adam spent with God was a day of rest. Work is worship and rest is too!
Scott Savage is a pastor and a writer who believes he has the best last name ever. He leads Cornerstone Church in Prescott, Arizona. Scott is married to Dani and they are the parents of three “little savages.” He is the creator of the Free to Forgive Course and you can read more of his writing at scottsavagelive.com.
