In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell makes the general claim that becoming successful in whatever it is you’re doing, will take about 10,000 hours of hard work.
Vidal Sassoon, the man who invented modern hairdressing, says the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.
Thomas Edison agrees: “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”
Speaking of perspiration, the year before last, inspired by Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes, I decided to do the London marathon. For about 6 months, I became a badged up member of the endurance running community. It was an education into an intense, (bordering on irrational), new culture which I discovered to be strangely consuming.
Interestingly, all the experts repeatedly promote rest in training… almost to a “when in doubt, rest” degree. Apparently there is a much greater problem with over-doing it than under-doing it in endurance running. It might be weird for most of us to hear that resting is a difficult task for marathon runners, but the reality is that the very drivenness that fuels their desire for and capability in such a sport, is also their greatest challenge when it comes to equally important recovery time. In the words of one world-class marathoner: “I hate resting.”
There are interesting parallels between the mind of an endurance runner and the mind of a business person. There is a wonderful tenacity found in successful business people that almost seems to thrive on hard work. And we certainly live in an increasingly competitive working culture that encourages us to DO more, do it harder and for longer.
Newton’s first law of motion states that a body at rest remains at rest and a body in linear motion remains in motion with constant velocity until and unless an external force is applied on it. Kind of like us really. You know that saying, “if you want something done, give it to a busy person.”
Experienced marathon runners build rest periods into their training schedule with as much discipline as any other aspect of their training. 
What about us? How do we rest? What does God think about it?
In Exodus 34:21, God said “Six days you shall labour, but on the seventh day you shall rest, even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.” Rest in this context literally meant to cease. And work was interpreted pretty widely since there were about 39 basic types of work that were prohibited (including cooking and lighting fires).
I guess the modern day version would say “STOP! Even when things are crazy busy or deadlines are looming or you have a presentation coming up, or you’re down on staff, or you’re about to launch, or when it’s totally in your interests and energy levels to keep going… stop.” Stop thinking, stop planning, stop worrying, just STOP.
Now of course we’re no longer under the law in that no one’s going to check up on us or boot us out of the camp for making toast, but it’s a challenge to our entrepreneurial minds to think about how important rest obviously is to God.
Rest was linked with consecration. Keep the sabbath day holy… combine your rest with intentional inclusion of me. I think God knows that we will only really truly get to know him when we rest. Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46v10).
On top of his Sabbath rest, Jesus certainly did a lot of further intentional resting; a lot of stopping, withdrawing. He did his work from this place of rest. And he spoke directly to business people like us when he said in Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.” Rest in this context again means to cease from any movement or labour in order to recover and collect strength, to give one’s self rest, to keep quiet - of calm and patient expectation. Sound familiar?
If you’re feeling tired, overburdened, just can’t find any time in any day, or even if the concept of rest is fairly foreign… it might be good to have a conversation with God about where rest fits in your own life. The outcome might surprise you.
Jessie Bloore
