Managing time and priorities is important in finding peace

As summer looms many of us will take on a new rhythm to life. Some things stop, others ramp-up, like spending money as we’re encouraged to kick-start the economy.

The Bible speaks powerfully about managing our time and priorities.

“In six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested.” (Exodus 20:11).

However you imagine the world to have been created, these ancient scriptures hold a deeper truth.

Humans are made for work and rest.

Some of us feel like we’re crawling to the finish-line this July. Parents are ready to take a break from their second – unpaid and mostly unappreciated - job as home-educators.

But work doesn’t go away.

For some it took on a greater intensity during lockdown.

People are desperate for brain space and to take a rest from their work.

There is an alternative which is to work from a place of rest. An inner peace will navigate us healthily through external responsibilities and even turmoil.

In Matthew’s gospel there’s an account of two dear friends of Jesus who welcomed his weary travelling group into their home.

Martha busied herself preparing a massive meal and frustratedly moaned to Jesus that she was getting no help since ‘her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught’.

Jesus’ reply helped her gain perspective: “My dear Martha, you are worried over all these details. There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

How about you? Are you maxed out so you are forced to rest from your busy work, or have you discovered how to live from a place of inner peace so you work from a place of rest?

Let us hear Jesus’ invitation, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11)

The Reverend Nick Allan is minister of The Well Sheffield Church, Ecclesall Road, Sharrow. See wellsheffield.com