9th Sunday after Pentecost
Mark 6:30-34
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And, they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now, many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of [Jesus and the apostles]. As [Jesus] went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
Re-creation
I got back from being the chaplain for Youth Camp at Mimanagish on Monday, and I just have to say, I love those kids, but spending a week with them was exhausting! We were a little short-staffed, so I had to pull double duty as a counselor. This was my third time working our conference Youth Camp, and there are basically three roles you get to choose from if you’re willing to spend a week with the kids: program director, counselor, or chaplain.
The first year I went to Mimanagish, I went as one of three program directors, and I worked with two other pastors to plan the week out for the kids. This was the first year that our conference was offering a camp program after everything shut down because of Covid. One of the other program directors was also acting as the chaplain, but as there were four other ordained ministers there, she had help.
Trying to bring camp back after covid was a challenge, so many of the kids who had been coming to our camp started going to other camps when ours shut down. Those kids wanted to continue going to the new camps with the new friends they made there, so registration for our camp was not as high as we would have liked. But, we thought if we were ever going to build the youth camp back up again, we needed to start somewhere.
And, because it had been a few years since the last camp, and so many people were excited to see it start up again, we had a slew of volunteers. There was pretty much a 1:1 counselor to camper ratio, which seems like it might not be such a bad thing, but with that many adults, all of whom had their own opinions about how things should be, coordinating and making decisions ended up being much harder than it should have been.
Still, with that many volunteers, the program directors were able to stay in a cabin of their own, while the counselors stayed in cabins with the kids. This meant that despite our activity-filled days, we three program directors actually did have moments throughout the day when we could be alone, not have to worry about what the kids were doing, and just relax for a bit. Even with that, it was a long week, and I was grateful to come home after it was all over.
The next year, I wanted to try something different, so I went as a counselor. I thought it would be easier, because I wouldn’t have to be in charge of anything, and I wouldn’t have to do any planning. What I didn’t realize was that counselors basically don’t get any breaks. I mean, at all! For a whole week! From the time the kids wake up, until the moment they go to sleep, you need to know where they are and what they’re doing. It’s basically the counselors’ job to make sure the kids don’t hurt themselves, and that they stay alive. You’re never alone! And, you have to wake up before they do, because you’re the one who has to wake them up! The kids can’t be trusted to get themselves out of bed and be on time for breakfast! And, you don’t get to go to sleep until after they fall asleep, because if you fall asleep first, they’ll start sneaking around the campground in the middle of the night, and there is every possibility that they will bump into a bear!
By the end of the week, I was pretty much dead on my feet. You know that feeling when you’re so mentally and physically exhausted that your body almost feels like it’s vibrating, and you can’t think straight? That was me at the end of that week. I needed someone to say to me, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourself and rest a while,” like Jesus said to the apostles. The apostles had been teaching and healing for so many people that they didn’t even have time to eat, and Jesus knew that if they kept going that way, they wouldn’t be able to teach and heal anymore.
Human beings aren’t supposed to just keep working and working and working without breaks. We even have laws to make sure that we don’t overwork ourselves, and to prevent others from forcing us to overwork ourselves. Several workers’ rights incidents in the United States eventually led to the passing in 1940 of a provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act that mandated a maximum work-week of 40 hours. Over time, this practice made its way around the world, and this is why we currently have a 2-day weekend. And, while there is no federal law mandating breaks and meal periods during the workday, many states and employers have policies for that.
The biblical creation story says that God rested on the seventh day. Even God needed to rest after the work of creating the world, and I think that rest was one of the main things that story was meant to teach: that we all need rest.
Biologically, our bodies are designed to rest. We need a certain amount of sleep every night in order for our brains to work properly. There are certain things that our brains only do while we’re sleeping, like removing toxins and maintaining our neural pathways, categorizing the events of the day, and determining which memories need to be saved. People who don’t get enough sleep are at a higher risk for a number of health problems, and I think most of us know how cranky we can be when we don’t get enough sleep.
Rest, recovery, relaxation, and recreation are necessary parts of life. When we talk about doing the right thing, doing God’s work, it’s usually about service to others. But, we can’t keep giving of ourselves, pouring from our cup, until there’s nothing left. We need to fill our cups, fill ourselves, rest, eat, make sure that we are mentally and emotionally able to do the work, so that we can serve others with our fullness, with the best of us, with all of the love and patience and kindness that overflows from our filled cups. If we fill ourselves to overflowing, then we’ll never run dry.
One of my seminary professors once said that recreation is the act of re-creating ourselves. We are made in the image of the Creator, so we were made to create, to write and draw, bake and build, invent and imagine. As we give of ourselves through our work, we must take the time to build ourselves back up, to recreate, to play, to re-create ourselves. Like work, recreation, re-creation, is something that we must do to stay healthy, and remain true to who we are, and who we were meant to be. It’s necessary and important.
Burnout is rampant in our country. We live in a culture of work, of achievement, a culture that says if you aren’t stressed out, then you aren’t trying hard enough. But, that isn’t the life that God wants for us. Nowhere in the Bible will you find a story in which God tells us to work ourselves to the bone. Instead, God rests on the seventh day. Jesus seeks solitude when he’s worn out from teaching and healing. And, Jesus tells the apostles, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”
For my third year at Mimanagish, I decided to be the chaplain, just so I could experience each of the three roles. It was my job to figure out the theme for each day, what scriptures we would use, and to work with the program directors so that our activities would reflect what we were trying to teach the campers. We learned from the previous year that we needed to be very intentional about scheduling breaks for all of the adult volunteers, so the program directors and I went through the schedule and figured out, for most of the days, when we and the counselors could have at least a little time for ourselves. Youth camp is, of course, first and foremost for the kids, but we wanted it to be a good experience for the adults as well.
I was still tired at the end of it, but it wasn’t the bone-crushing weariness of the year before. We all had time to look at the trees, listen to the river, journal, meditate, nap. And, we were better counselors and program directors for it. I was a better chaplain. Everyone has to work, and work will always be there. But, let’s make sure that we are able to do good work, and not let it be the only thing in our lives. It’s a cliché, but I’m going to say it anyway: We shouldn’t live to work, we should work so that we can live. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
