I’m really not much of a pool person. Perhaps it’s because my abs are hidden somewhere below an extra level of insulation. Perhaps it’s because I’m not all that keen on being in a pool where who knows what all is floating around in the water! But I believe there’s something we can learn from our hot summer days at the pool.

I remember as a child going to the public pool and loving to swim around in the water. I remember hanging out with friends and just enjoying the time we had in the water. But about every hour there was a whistle. You see the lifeguards know that we need a time of rest. They know that our bodies can only handle so much of the activity before they need a little break.

Imagine that your entire life was like that hot summer day at the pool. Do you have a regular whistle that sounds to tell you it’s time to rest? I’ve been watching a lot of my fiends and even my own schedule and noticing something a little disturbing – we don’t rest very well. I mean we sleep. And we do other things that bring relief, but how often do we actually completely pull the plug and just reset everything!

Now, if you know me, you’ll hopefully understand quickly that this message is written more for me than anyone else. I don’t do the whole rest thing as well as I know that I should. But I have creative ways of resting. For me rest is working out. I love to hit the gym and work off some stress. Pushing weights, lifting, climbing on the step machine…all of these things are ways that I give my mind rest.

In our fast paced world filled with digital media, it seems as if we can never get away. We carry our phones in our pockets. Many of us have our phones linked to a smart watch that allow people to interrupt just about any moment of our day. It’s like we’ve placed ourselves on a leash to our devices. But what if there was a whistle we were just ignoring?

If you go to the pool and don’t listen to the lifeguard’s directions to get out of the pool during rest period you could be kicked out and lose your pool membership. They blow the whistle because they know that it’s good for our bodies to rest from the work. But what about the rest of our lives? What about our workload? We’ve gone from working 40 hours a week on a regular basis to feeling guilty if we don’t put in 50, 60, even 70 hours a week! We feel like we didn’t do enough if our calendar has white space left. And then we complain because we’re tired, burned out, stressed, get headaches and just feel overwhelmed! What did we expect would happen?!?!

So what do we do about it? We can’t “stop” working. We can’t give up all of the things for which we’re now responsible, but we can’t keep up this pace. The answer is actually pretty simple. Listen for the whistle!

Perhaps you could find 10 minutes ever 2 hours to just step away. Maybe you are able to get up and walk away from your desk every hour for just a couple of minutes to clear your head and let your mind rest. Or what about supper time? Do you have a technology policy at your dinner table? Perhaps when your family sits down for supper, you all place your devices on the counter…away from you…and silence them.

The point is we all need rest. None of us are an exception to this. But we all rest differently. So find the things that give you rest. Discover the way God has built you and when you determine what feeds you and helps you clear your head set a whistle to make you step away regularly.

Listen for the whistle! It will actually give you more productive time than it will take away!