You Need a Time Out!

Several winters ago, I hit the wall. I was physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausted. Ironically, my burnout came during the “good times” when I was busy doing lots of positive things. My personal life was full of important responsibilities like being a good dad, husband, son, friend, etc. As an entrepreneur, after years of struggling, I was in a season of opportunity. I felt compelled to seize every business opportunity that came my way. As a result, I became addicted to busyness. Luckily, a good friend recognized my burnout and recommended I go on a silent retreat at a remote retreat center about an hour north of the Twin Cities. This sounded a bit intimidating but I was aware enough of my condition to give it a try.

I arrived at the retreat center in the late afternoon. It consisted of a few hermitages nestled in the woods. Upon arrival, the innkeeper drove me to my hermitage, gave me a basket of bread, cheese, and fruit and then drove off into the woods. It felt strange to be all alone in the middle of a forest in the dead of winter. The sun began to set over the snow-covered forest so I immediately “got busy” preparing for the night ahead. My hermitage was a small one room A-frame consisting of a bed, a hot stove, and a rocking chair in front of a big picture window looking into the woods. I heated up some soup I brought from home and had a nice candle lit dinner of bread and soup watching a beautiful sunset through the trees. After dinner, I settled in my rocking chair to read my Bible……and then it happened!

As the sun set, my room got very dark. The one candle I had barely produced light. It was too dark to read my Bible and it was 5:30pm! No books, no cell phone, no television, no work, no child to put to bed, no nothing! During the next four hours, my mind was in overdrive. Calming my mind was like trying to break an untamed stallion. My thoughts raced and jumped from one thing to another. “What will the Vikings do next season? That was a pretty good speaking engagement I had last week”, “Wow, Bob was a real jerk at our meeting yesterday”. I was going crazy!

I deliberately created space and time to be alone with God but couldn’t quiet my mind for one moment. Instead, I grew restless and bored. My heart was in the right place but my mind was not. I confess the night ended with me making shadow animals on the wall with my flashlight.

I discovered that trying to rest your mind thats been racing for weeks on end is like a fly trying to stop a run away freight train. Instead, we need to build stops along the way. The best way to recover from busyness addiction is to deliberately build in pause into your day. Pause is simply a temporary stop of action, or resting place. This brief moment in time allows your brain to renew and recover back to it’s full potential.

The greatest gift to parents is the “time out”. When your kids get worked up you put them in a time out so they can reset their overstimulated brains. You do this because you love them and you know it’s best for them. Why then as smart adults, don’t we do this for ourselves? Just like you love your kids and want what’s best for them so does God. He knows whats best for you. Romans 12:2 states, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We will never catch up with the ever-increasing volume and speed of information the world throws our way but we can pause to renew our mind. Do yourself a favor. Give yourself a time out. It’s for your own good. I’m no Bible scholar but to the best of my knowledge,the only time I ever read where God makes us do something is in Psalm 23. “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.  God was the originator of the time out. It worked back then and it certainly works now.

So, give yourself a break, even if it’s ten minutes. Rest is not only a gift, it’s an essential part of life. It doesn’t just restore your mind and body, it restores your soul! Give it a try and you’ll find yourself not only more effective but actually enjoying the day more.