You’ve been lied to about rest.
Somewhere between the hustle culture sermons about “grinding for the Kingdom” and your boss passive-aggressively emailing you at 10 p.m. with a “quick question,” the idea of actual, soul-filling rest has been lost. And no, scrolling TikTok in bed while your brain melts into the algorithmic void does not count.
Rest isn’t just a luxury for people who have their lives together—it’s a necessity. A spiritual, emotional and even physical game-changer that modern life is actively working against. We treat it like a reward for productivity, something we “earn” by checking enough boxes. But that’s not how it works. If you only allow yourself to rest when you’ve run out of energy, you’re not actually resting. You’re recovering from burnout.
The problem? We don’t even know what real rest looks like anymore.
For a generation that’s really into “self-care,” we sure are bad at resting. We schedule vacations that are more exhausting than our regular lives, listen to lo-fi beats while answering Slack messages and take “Sabbath” as an excuse to binge entire seasons of prestige TV in one sitting. No judgment—Paradise is basically modern-day Proverbs.
But rest isn’t just about inactivity. It’s about intentionality. The Bible starts with God creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh—not because he was tired but because he was setting the rhythm. Rest wasn’t an afterthought. It was built into creation itself.
Jesus followed that rhythm too. He regularly stepped away from crowds, left people hanging (yes, really) and took time alone to pray. If the literal Savior of the world wasn’t available 24/7, why do we think we need to be?
Here’s the thing: rest isn’t just good for your soul. It’s good for your brain.
Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a physician and author of Sacred Rest, says that most of us are suffering from a “rest deficit” because we don’t realize there are different types of rest. “We think we’re resting when we’re sitting on the couch watching TV, but that’s not the kind of rest our brain actually needs,” she explains.
Turns out, there are seven different kinds of rest—physical, mental, sensory, creative, emotional, social and spiritual. And most of us are only addressing one or two at a time. Ever wonder why taking a nap doesn’t always make you feel better? It’s because your exhaustion isn’t just physical.
Studies show that chronic stress literally rewires your brain, making it harder to focus, regulate emotions and—get this—be productive in the long run. That means the guilt trip you give yourself for resting because you “should be doing something” is actually working against you.
Christine Caine, a renowned author and speaker, warns about confusing hype with genuine passion. She points out that many of us mistake the adrenaline rush of constant activity for true spiritual fervor.
“Hype gives us a certain feeling, but then you need the next event or the next whatever,” she says. “Passion is something that is internally regulated by the spirit of God, despite what’s going on around you.”
Caine emphasizes the importance of anchoring ourselves in Christ to avoid drifting into burnout. She notes that without a firm anchor, “we’re just not going to make it.”
The world thrives on keeping you busy. Consumerism, capitalism and even some versions of church culture—there’s always something else to do, buy, achieve. But choosing rest? That’s countercultural. It’s an act of defiance against a system that wants to convince you that your worth is tied to your output.
It’s why Sabbath is meant to be set apart. Not as another obligation but as a holy pause. A reminder that the world will keep spinning even if you don’t answer that email, even if you take a nap, even if you let yourself simply exist for a while.
So take a real Sabbath. Put your phone in another room. Go outside. Breathe. Let yourself rest. Because you don’t need to “earn” it. In fact, you were created for it.
