"If we want to keep going, we need to keep stopping."

I've been reading a beautifully written book on the Art of Rest by Adam Mabry an energetic young pastor whose bio wryly ends, "Adam is not naturally good at resting."

This morning, I read an insightful passage about how Jesus knew the importance of rest for His own life:

"If anyone had good reason to be running through the airport of life, it was Jesus. You and I have a lot we must accomplish, but it pales in comparison with the work facing him. Making a deadline is one thing; making a way for sinners to be saved is quite another. Add to that the fact that he only really began work on such a project in his final years of life here, and you'd think Jesus would have been an anxiety attack in sandals, and that taking time out would have been out of the question.

And yet...

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5 v 16, NIV)

[He] went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone... (Matthew 14 v 23)

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. (Luke 6 v 12)

Jesus had so much to do that he made sure he stopped to sit with his Father. Why? Because he understood that moments of holy rest offer the reward of endurance. If we want to keep going, we need to keep stopping" (pgs. 104-105).

I'm pondering that today. How much more is that true then for us?