Unhurried: A 5-Day Challenge to Slow Your Pace and Fix Your Eyes on JesusSample

The Creator Rested

This idea of sitting, resting, and creating downtime is not new. In fact, it goes back to the creation narrative in Genesis.

Many of us are familiar with the story of creation in Genesis 1. From our earliest days in Sunday school we’ve been taught, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Usually, this was coupled with a coloring sheet of the earth and a toddler melody of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

However, the lack of novelty should never diminish the miraculous work God performed.

In the original Hebrew, the word “created” literally means “formed ex nihilo—out of nothing.” There was nothing, and God used nothing to form everything.

Then, we read this in Genesis 2:1–3:

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”

When it comes to creating margin, we see two important practices in these verses.

1. God Recognized When He Was Finished

He could’ve kept tweaking His work or creating more and more because He is God, but He didn’t. “God finished His work.”

When was the last time you finished your work? I don’t necessarily mean completed everything on your to-do list with absolutely nothing left to do, but instead, finished your work for an allotted time.

When we live hurried, over-planned lives, we fail to recognize finished work because there is always more to do.

This is a hard principle for me to put into place. Finishing work when I know there’s more to do feels a lot like procrastination. However, in this account, God lovingly shows us a key difference. Procrastination is avoiding work you need to do, whereas finishing is completing the work you set out to do. This doesn’t mean you finish more than you set out to do; it means you finish the work and recognize it is enough.

2. God Rested from His Work

When the work was complete, God rested.

I think this is one of the most powerful and freeing images of God in Scripture. The Creator of the universe prioritized stopping, slowing, and resting. Then He took it even further by blessing this time and making it holy. This idea of “sabbath,” or a day or time to abstain from work, becomes a major theme we see throughout Scripture.

Yet, when we fail to create margin and make time for rest, we essentially tell God we are more important than Him—a dangerous and ill-considered lie. If the Creator of the universe can make time for rest and designate this time as holy, how much more should we find time away from work? There is nothing you need to do that is more important than the work God accomplished.

This realization should bring freedom! You can create margin, and you can stop working because God rested.

Today’s Challenge: Set Clear Parameters for Finished Work

Just as God knew when He finished creating, you, too, must know when your work is finished. Maybe this involves creating lists and only focusing on X number of tasks. Or maybe it’s implementing a system to prioritize tasks and set aside those of less importance for another time.

A quick note on setting aside pieces of work: our hurried lifestyle has trained our minds to become anxious about incomplete tasks. However, in Matthew 6:34, Jesus commands, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

You have enough work, enough tasks, and enough to think about today. When you set aside a task for tomorrow, focus on it then . . . not today. Today has enough. You have enough. We see this with creation. God could have created everything in the first day, but He didn’t. If He didn’t do it all in one day, we don’t need to either.

After Reading the Passages, Answer:

1. What does this teach me about God?
2. How should I order my days as a result?