Your gift of a sabbatical this fall gave me the chance to dream about how Pastoral Care could function better at First Baptist. The dream? “Spiritual preventative maintenance,” born of the frustration of being called too late to help someone get on a healthier, more fulfilling path and witnessing unnecessary pain or despair. In this issue and next, I share two ways to do that in 2025!

First, learn how to truly rest: You can get in the Guinness Book of World Records for all kinds of high-risk daring-do, including the record for flying to the outer limits of earth’s atmosphere, jumping out of the plane, and dropping back to earth faster than the last person. But they’ve taken the record for sleep deprivation out of the running as a category because research shows that the detrimental effects are—wait for it—TOO RISKY!

Yet, sleep deprivation is a lifestyle for many, which diminishes our ability to cope. Sleep interruptions and persistent fatigue can be harbingers of serious illness and emotional problems. The benefits of good sleep are just as surprising, especially for the brain.

By “truly rest” I mean: practice sabbath-keeping more deeply. That’s not a criticism of your church attendance! It’s an invitation to think of the sabbath biblically: as your Divine Parent lovingly calling you away from all that seeks to exploit you—and the ways you sabotage yourself—to let God be God, to reconnect and recreate, to savor the fruits of your labor, to love what you love.

Today our smart phones “pollute” our working hours with personal business and “pollute” our personal lives with work. We work fewer hours, but stress more over it! Researchers suggest we keep a log of how we spend each 30-minute segment of a day to see where our time is going. That’s a good way to follow Paul’s advice to “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time.” (Ephesians 5:15) Rediscover sabbath in 2025!

—Kyle Matthews, Minister of Pastoral Care

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