Mission & Margin

By Joshua Weisbrod

Jesus Christ is the model of perfect rest. He reveals to us how to rest even while living in this broken world. His life perfectly models the balance of rest and purpose for His disciples.

Jesus’ life on earth had an evident mission and purpose. Every day was saturated with encounters, whether they were people needing healing, confrontation with Pharisees or miraculous works in front of crowds and disciples. Those in desperate need surrounded most places He went (see Luke 8:45). His ministry years were full of activity.

If anyone could say they were too busy to rest, it would be Jesus, yet Scripture clearly shows us He rested. I would not have blamed Jesus if He could not rest, yet He found the time. Not only did Jesus rest, but He taught His disciples to rest as well. Remember, a disciple follows the teacher’s leading and allows it to change how they live. Jesus models rest so His disciples will live it out.

At the beginning of Mark 6, Jesus sends His disciples out to neighboring cities, and Scripture tells us they called people to repent, healed the sick and cast out demons. As they were returning and celebrating all that had happened, the wisdom of Christ invited them immediately to rest: “And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat” (Mark 6:31).

Jesus recognized the intensity of their mission, and when they returned, He immediately invited them to rest with Him. His invitation to “come away” implies Jesus wants His disciples to follow Him. The Master Teacher is not telling His disciples to live a way He would not live but rather inviting them to participate in a life He is modeling.

Often, we hear about Jesus retreating to desolate places to pray (see Luke 5:16). It was a somewhat familiar pattern in Jesus’ life. In the previously mentioned passage of Mark 6, Jesus told His disciples to come away and rest with Him, but there was one problem: the crowd following Jesus didn’t get the hint. When Jesus and His disciples got to the other side of the lake to rest, they found the crowd waiting for them, ready and hungry to be fed spiritually and physically. They intended to rest, but the needs of life caught up with them.

Life can be like that sometimes. As a minister, I find this to be an incredibly relatable view of Christ. It can be hard to cultivate rest when the world’s demands are intense. You can have the best intentions, but life’s many facets and troubles have a way of finding you. Don’t be discouraged; if Jesus fulfilled His calling and found rest, you can too. It isn’t always easy, but it is an essential area of our lives to cultivate if we long for more excellent spiritual health and purpose.

The first step to cultivating rest is to set healthy boundaries. We live in a world that does not prioritize good rest. You might have seen some forms of rest in culture, but are they good versions? Usually, the rest I see is “working-for-the-weekend” rest, where men and women drive themselves into the ground all week and then hope that a two-day weekend of chaotic hedonism will somehow steady their spirit for another work week. It doesn’t work for most people.

The other form of rest people invoke is “flaky” rest, where people quit commitments or things of actual importance when life gets challenging or even mildly inconvenient. Often, this happens because people have not set healthy boundaries in their lives. They have said “yes” to many unimportant things and become burned out with the essential things, specifically their relationship with Christ and His church.

Did you know Jesus had boundaries? One of Jesus’ boundaries was over His accessibility. There were times when Jesus was always accessible to every person from any walk of life, but there were other times when He was with a select group of disciples to pray (see Matthew 17) or even be completely alone to commune with God.

Mark tells us, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35). People often surrounded Jesus, but He regularly got away by Himself to pray. This boundary wasn’t solely about keeping people at a distance but about drawing nearer to God. Time alone in prayer provided Christ with the space to cultivate true rest and intimate communion in the presence of God.

When was the last time you got away by yourself? Now, I am not just talking about a vacation or a hike. When was the last time you got away from the overwhelming cares of the world and spent time being renewed by the presence of God? Setting boundaries on your time will allow you to cultivate a deeper faith in Christ.

Setting healthy boundaries also cultivates rest by putting our relationships in proper order. Many people need more boundaries and an appropriate order of priority in their relationships. Correct priorities are essential boundaries that every believer must establish to cultivate rest. People often give the most time and energy to relationships with the most urgent problems and the ones that demand the most attention. They frequently have no time or energy left to give to the people they care the most about, the dreams they long to fulfill or the community they want to build.

If you have felt overwhelmed in your relationships, you may have them in the wrong priority. You may not have healthy boundaries so the most urgent troubles have stolen your energy and rest. It would help if you got your boundaries and priorities set. God must be your first priority; second is your spouse, then your family and down from there.

You might think, I am too busy to have boundaries. You are too busy not to have boundaries. Being busy is an excellent reason to establish healthy boundaries. Even the busiest life on earth requires boundaries to allow the proper cultivation of rest. You need rest, and to cultivate that principle, you need boundaries. The demands of your life might be great, but even Jesus had boundaries on relationships. Did you know Jesus had boundaries on His family?

“And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.’ And he answered them, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother’” (Mark 3:31-35).

Mark doesn’t describe how Mary responds to Jesus’ words, but I imagine she is probably used to these responses. Raising the Son of God must have been full of a litany of unique moments. Mark shows us Jesus prioritized relationships and was involved in the Father’s work. This meant that other relationships were affected by His primary relationship to the Father and the Father’s will. Jesus is not casting aside His mother or family, but He does have a clear priority of purpose. This type of boundary might sound strange to you. Remember, cultivating a life of rest requires boundaries, just as Jesus had boundaries.

We had outgrown our first little building in our sixth year as a church and felt led to sell the building and find a larger place that could facilitate all the fantastic ministry God was doing in our city. After months of prayer and searching, we found an old supermarket that had been vacant for years.

When we purchased the old grocery store to convert into a church, I had no idea of the legal battle that would follow. The constant emails and phone calls back and forth absorbed every moment of my time. There would be days I would wake up at four in the morning fighting with lawyers and still be fighting at eleven o’clock at night.

I distinctly remember standing in the hospital on the phone, trying to sort out legal paperwork as my wife was about to give birth to our third child. At that moment, I was frustrated at the nature of my job because I felt like it had already taken so many precious moments from me, but when I stepped back and looked, the reality was that I had not set healthy boundaries. No one was to blame but me.

I had not cultivated places of rest in my own life or set healthy boundaries. I had not followed the model of Jesus Christ in my life and ministry. I could see it reflected in my family; they were suffering because I had not set healthy boundaries. Right there, I knew I had to begin cultivating a life of rest.

Setting healthy boundaries has become an incredible blessing in my life. The people I love the most respect the idea of setting boundaries. Most people are excited when they discover someone else has set boundaries because it inspires them to do the same.

My job can be very demanding, but I have started setting boundaries for times I can be reached by phone. I have seen a more significant sense of peace in my own family because they know that when I am with them in that moment, nothing will steal away my affection. Setting down your phone and not going near it might sound like a small boundary, but it has a profound effect.

Take a moment and ask yourself what kind of boundaries you have. Do you have boundaries on work? Parents, do you have boundaries on technology for your children? Married couples, do you have boundaries for your parents and in-laws? We need healthy boundaries to cultivate a life of rest.

A good indicator that these boundaries are not in place is that you live in constant fight or flight. If you always need to escape, you need boundaries. If you find yourself constantly abandoning the good things of life—family, church, intimacy with God—then you need to set boundaries. Setting healthy boundaries in your life is so crucial to cultivating a life of rest.

To read more from Joshua, order his book here: https://cultivatesacredsoil.audiencetap.com/qc/2XTjf1bFNLVpq