relaxation – Houghton STAR

By Christian Welker

A new semester has begun with all the stresses and anxieties we have come to expect, from the first-year students who are still learning about college life to the seniors who are starting their long sprint to the finish line, looking so near and yet so far at the same time.

Rest assured, this will not be a “Just give it to God” article. The Sparrows and Lillies don’t have a German test in an hour or a concert a week from today.

I firmly believe that the Lord is and always will be the ultimate source of peace for his children. However, I’m also willing to admit that in places like this, it often feels as though the very act of giving up your stress to God is a requirement that brings its own anxieties. It’s hard to lean on the peace of God while counting how many Around the Tables you still need to go to, or dragging yourself out of bed to get to church on the one day you would have been able to sleep in more, or even sitting in Chapel, worrying about the test you have during your 12 o’clock class that you really need to study more for.

At a place like Houghton, sometimes it can feel like trying to get the peace of God only helps drive it away. Professors talk about how students need to take Sabbath more and then give you 60 pages of reading and a paper to do before Monday morning. However, something I learned in my time at Houghton is that God doesn’t limit rest to going to church on Sunday and then sitting around doing nothing in the afternoon. Rest and Sabbath can be wherever you can fit it into your schedule. A Sabbath for me is Tuesday evening Nerf Nights in Roth. On the surface, it doesn’t seem relaxing to charge up three flights of stairs, blast random guys with toy guns, and then run back down to start over. However, it’s a time when I can put due dates and projects to the side for an hour or two and enjoy fellowship with my hallmates. We don’t tend to think of times like that as Sabbath because it doesn’t feel like God is there. Yet it provides the mental rest that we need as we continue on in the week.

These small moments are Sabbaths that students can take wherever and whenever they can. It doesn’t have to be weekly. If something needs to be done by Wednesday morning, you would be much more likely to find me in a study room than the trenches of Roth’s first floor, but having those times that you can set aside for your physical and mental health is important. Without times like these, you run the risk of burning yourself out or making yourself sick right before the big paper is due.

Is it good to rest on a Sunday after church? Of course! But it’s also good to take some time on Wednesday to watch your favorite TV show, spend Friday evening playing games with friends, or even just lay down on a bed or couch and relax between one class and the next. It may not add up to a whole day of rest, but taking a Sabbath where you can will help as we continue throughout the semester.

Rest can be found in the Chapel, but it can also be found in study rooms or dorm rooms, in the woods or on the quad, or anywhere where a student closes their textbook for a few minutes and thinks:

“You know what? I earned a break, and I’m going to lay down.” ★

By Abigail Weeks

As I wrote this during our spring break that happens during the winter—Why don’t we call it winter break?—I found myself struggling to rest. I’ve worked tirelessly for my entire undergrad career, and now I face my last semester and I have yet again overloaded my schedule. Factoring in extracurriculars and accelerated half-semester classes, the workload comes to around an ill-advised 20 credits. And for what? I have plenty of reasons with which I won’t bore you. I could’ve taken the easy route, as I only needed six credits toward my major to graduate. Yet, like so many others, I must hold captive any spare time in my schedule and fill it with something “productive”.

Why do so many of us as young adults feel the need to push and shove until we’re all burnt out, drowning in our school work? When was the last time you were able to truly rest outside of a scheduled academic break? Of course, there are things required of us to accomplish for our academic careers, but I’m mostly talking about extracurriculars.

As students living in a hustle culture, many of us have felt the need to always keep busy. I personally have never made it a priority to rest. I’ve been working every summer since I was 16, and I have always found a way to do more work over academic breaks. Until coming to Houghton, I didn’t think Christians really honored the Sabbath. It was never something instilled in me to do growing up, despite coming from a Christian background. So if this thing that I’m supposed to do—that we are all supposed to do—as Christians is in the Bible, why is it so hard?

Here’s a quick answer: we have let culture influence what is Good and Holy. The Sabbath day is a gift to us to restore, recollect, and reflect. It allows us to quiet our hearts and rest in God. Why do we ignore it? Furthermore, why is it so hard for us to take a few hours to rest, let alone an entire day?

I think there is something inside of us that is afraid of being lazy. It measures our self-worth in the number of things we accomplish and the amount of times we tell people we are “too busy”. After all, we are told to do whatever we do with all our hearts, right? If I’m not being productive in some capacity, I’m automatically lazy, which to me feels much greater a sin than not resting at all. Oh, what a great lie this is. Overworking myself to the point of burnout doesn’t make me special. It doesn’t make me better than my neighbor. It doesn’t set me apart, and by not honoring a time to slow down, I end up dishonoring my Creator.

In a way, this drive to overbook ourselves has a tendency to lead us to ignore the people right in front of us and divert our attention inward. How many times have you not checked in with someone because you’re running late or because you’re thinking about how much time a 30-second interaction will eat up the little space you have left in your schedule? I know I am guilty of this. Perhaps the funniest thing about this is that all of this self-serving yet harmful behavior occurs in a Christian environment that is supposed to go against the grain of secular culture. So, what then is Christian about an environment that leaves us unrested and utterly burnt out? Should we blame the “system” and play the victim for our inability to rest? I think not. We have the ability to evaluate where we stand in our lives. It may come as a shock to the overachievers out there, but we are allowed to say no to things and still love God with all of our minds and hearts and beings, and love others, too. Loving others does not mean saying yes to every opportunity. Serving others becomes an impossible task if we are consumed by our own to-do lists.

The Bible’s teaching that we must boast in Christ alone and not in our works is a pretty stark contrast to academia’s view that without our work, we are nothing. We must learn to look to God for our source of meaning, not our lengthy to-do lists and activities. When we learn where our true value comes from, it will be so much easier for us to separate ourselves from the hustle of our lives. If you truly feel called to an opportunity, we have a faithful God that can see you through, but if saying yes to a good opportunity jeopardizes your well-being, it isn’t really good, is it? Saying no to someone or something does not make you sinful; it is saying no to God that does.

Next time you find yourself with some space in your schedule, consider honoring God through resting so you can have more strength to serve God and serve His kingdom. ★