What is a Sabbatical?

Brent has been a Student Pastor for nine years now at BCC. We absolutely love it there! However, the past year has run us down physically, mentally, and emotionally. Sometimes, it has been to the detriment of our family. Student Pastors work all the time.  I know in a normal job such as a Police Man you work all the time, but you at least get two consecutive days off here and there, and work clear hours (a start time and stop time).  With being a Student Pastor you can never predict when a teen is going to need counseling, when a funeral will happen, when volunteers want to share ideas, or when someone will need you for a last minute devotion:). All this added onto regular hours and life is a whirl wind.  We have two new families that are on staff with us at BCC that we truly love and adore as friends; Marty and Laura Burgess (college)  and Brad and Brooke Snipes (students). It would just kill us if we were the type of people that sacrificed our family on the alter of ministry, and these new families saw that as their ministry example. The Bible calls us to REST! Unfortunately, we have been terrible in this example. There should be at least one full day of turning off your Blackberry, Facebook, and whatever else links you to your job (even volunteer job:) and resting. Our bodies need rest, they crave rest, they were created to REST!  So, as you can guess Brent is on a sabbatical. He is not on a vacation.  Every day he has parked himself from 8am-4pm in the forest with a number of new books.  He starts his day off reading the Bible, praying, and journaling. The rest of the day he has been reading books about history, marriage, and culture. Then, after reading a full day he comes home to US! We have a actually had six homemade meals in a row!  We have played games every night with our little girl, read her books, and done our bedtime routine TOGETHER! It may sound so common for you to do this, but not for us. At least four nights on a ministry week will be spent either at church, sporting event (HS or MS), or a meeting- all lasting past 8 pm. We rarely have two nights in a row with nothing but just us. I write this hoping that our friends and family realize that our bodies and minds can only take so much. We can do all things through Christ, however, he does not NEED us to do everything for Him.  He wants us to be renewed. So, please renew yourself. Stop thinking you have to do everything for Him. He doesn't really need us, He just wants us to serve Him out of love and desire. We sometimes don't rest bc we think others won't accomplish the task or even do it as well as we do. Ha ha ha! That's just saying you have to be in control at all times and don't trust God to take care of it. Maybe it isn't important as you think it is:). Make sense?