Rest to Refresh

Most of us know what it feels like to be at the end of our rope. The demands of work, family, relationships, and life never seem to stop, and sometimes even a vacation doesn't feel like enough. This Sunday at Friends Church, we'll explore a surprising perspective on why simply pushing harder often isn't the answer - and discover a practical, life-giving way to find renewed energy in the middle of ordinary life.

Whether you're feeling overwhelmed, running on empty, or simply looking for a healthier rhythm, this message offers a fresh, engaging look at rest, purpose, and what it means to truly be refreshed.

Come prepared to laugh, think, and maybe see a familiar story in a completely new light.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 2:31

When he was alive, I really hope I can enjoy that.

SPEAKER_10 2:42

Yesterday we said goodbye to you. Today I wipe my tears, but away my soon. You left the hole, I won't feel it though. Cause I guess it's nice to know. That grief is love with no place to go. So I've been going out. I've been seeing friends and we can say yes. Don't need to pretend to hide my feelings. I've been crying. Don't mind being dumb at all. And maybe that's the gift and all it is that I got all this love. All this love. Oh this I don't know what to do with it. Oh I don't know what to do with it. Sorry to make a second part to you. If I could put it in words, then it's a thank you. Cause how much you lives in me and no, and it's helping me to grow. Cause grief is love with no home. So I've been going up. I've been seeing friends on the weekend, seeing yes. Don't need to pretend to have my feelings. I've been crying. Don't mind me in the middle. And maybe that's the gift to know this. That I've got this love. All this and I don't know what to do.

unknown 4:37

Oh I don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_10 4:46

Oh and I don't know what to do. It's all a part of the process. It's like my cup overfilled. Now there's access. I guess it means that I'm living. If I've got all this love, I don't know what to do with. Oh this love. Oh this love, I don't know what to do with it. Oh this love. Oh this sun, I don't know what to do with I don't know what to do. Oh and I don't know what to do it.

SPEAKER_06 6:04

Slip inside the eye of your mind. Don't you know you might fight? A better place to play. You said that you could never be, but all the things that you see Slow defending the world. So I start the revolution from back. Step aside some time beside the fire blankets. Something that's from your friends. You want to come and so I'm just gonna go for the place where you go. Well nobody knows not a print on.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

How y'all doing this morning? You're very quiet. Don't want to worry, more people show up. Can we, before we get going, can we just say thank you to all the volunteers who have been unbelievably flexible as we've tried to make all the changes? As always, this is the spiritual journey. So just take a minute. Take a couple deep breaths, settle yourself here. We're here to do our unique spiritual journey, whatever that looks like for each of us. That means that you have to figure out what works for you and what you need in this moment. We don't have multimedia right now. Uh it was just too much money, actually, to put a projector and get that all set up. So still with the lyrics in a different way. Normally you're reading them and using that part of your brain. Let the emotion of the song move you today. Again, we're here for our unique spiritual journey. Which means that we have to do whatever we need to settle. So pay attention to what gets you into this moment. The service is gonna be a bit shorter than we usually do it. Because it's summer and we want to make sure that we don't spend too much time. And it's gonna get hot in here. So if you need to bring out the van, feel free to do that. So we're gonna transfer over the van. Let's be in this moment together.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Hey everybody. My name is Gregory. Happy to be here. It's been a little while since I've been up on stage. Thank you, Dave, Brooklyn, for being up here with me today. We got a small band. Um I picked some songs today that I I feel will speak to me personally, and I really hope that they speak to you as well. We're opening up this set with a song called Dare You to Move, which is kind of been one of my life anthems. It's about the struggle of life. You come into this world innocent, you know, like a baby, just pure and innocent, untainted by the world, and by the stuff that goes on, the pain and the hurt. And then all of a sudden it's like resistance happens. And those uh times of your childhood are turned a lot more complex, you know? And in those moments of failure, pain, hurt, you have opportunities to get yourself back up and uh shake it off and keep moving forward. So I want you to kind of go into the song with that framing in your mind, okay?

SPEAKER_08 12:51

Welcome to the planet. Welcome to existence, everyone's here, everyone's here, everybody's watching you now, everybody waits for you now. What happens next? What happens next? Welcome to the Fall Welcome to the City, maybe redemption has stories to tell. Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell. Where can you write to escape from yourself? Where are you gonna go? Where are you gonna go? Salvation is here.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

It's pretty easy to see it. Uh pretty easy to see it, and pretty easy to get uh get a little hopeless in in despair. Um I just became a Canadian citizen, by the way. I tell you, okay, I'm from the States, and uh, I've got a lot of family in the States, uh, and I see the stuff that goes on down there. I know we all watch it. Um I don't know if it means any more to me than anybody anybody else that lives here. I lived in Canada more than half my life now. Uh, but uh just the animosity and the division and the hurt and the pain and the un inability to see eye to eye with your neighbor, to look them in the eye, is uh frightening. It really is, you know. And so I I'm very thankful to be in Canada, but you know, I see this happening in Canada too. I see I'll tell you this right now. I I did this live Zoom uh swearing in ceremony to become a Canadian citizen. Uh really cool experience. I had no idea what I was getting into, to be honest with you. I feel like a Canadian, I've lived here my like more than half my life, like I said, but I went into this ceremony just going, okay, it's just the last thing I gotta do before they uh sign off on my citizenship. And um I turned the Zoom camera on, and there were hundreds of like pages, okay, of people, all with their Canadian flags, wearing their Canadian shirts, wearing their Canadian googly things on their heads. And I was like, oh, this is amazing. This is such a beautiful thing. These people, like me, decided that Canada was gonna be their home, it was gonna be their country that they wanted to live in. Uh, for whatever reason brought them there. Um, but to be able to go into a Zoom stream like that and show your pride for what Canada stands for is beautiful. You know, what we have here in Canada is uh unique in the entire world. I feel like it's never meant to be a melting pot where cultures are supposed to just kind of blend together and become one. It's a mosaic, it's where we can celebrate our differences, our differences in religion, spirituality, ethnicity, cultural practices, our points of view, and with that comes a lot of work. And so these next two songs speak to that. That's why I picked them today, just because it's really on my heart, in my mind. I will say that this next song called See the Love is really tough for me to do when I look at people who are saying things that I don't agree with or just feel so wrong. How do I love that person?

SPEAKER_08 19:54

I haven't figured that out yet, so every day we go to war again, we assume we know so much more than them for we hear what they have to say. Headlines break and we go to war again, calling them names again, we give our peace away. I hope we see it 'cause I wanna see it. I hope we believe 'cause I wanna see I wanna see the love on around you. I wanna know you. I want to know the love, it's all around you, it's on around you. Day by day. Hope fades away, and then we know that there is pain with it. We cannot medicate. Learn to feel. Learn to believe again. Open our eyes again to see our brothers paint. I hope they see it. I hope we be. Stick with me if you know it. I wanna see. I wanna see the love. I wanna do it. I wanna know. It lights you up. It lights you up. It lights you up. It lights you up. It lights you. I want to see. I want to see love. It's all around you. All around you. I wanna know. I wanna know the love is all around you. It's all around you. Yeah. I wanna see I wanna see the love around you. All around you. I wanna know. I wanna know the love. Allura, spiritual gym.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

That's what we call this place. Ironically, we're actually meeting in a gym. I don't know if that connected with anybody else. It just kind of was very ironic to me. I'm like, oh, this is actually a gym. Yeah, but uh, you know, the spiritual gym, I guess for me that's um that's where I go to work out some spiritual muscles. It's like um I deal with the things that I know that I need to improve in. I deal with the things that I don't want to deal with. Uh and and one of those is really just uh idea that my my sole purpose on this planet is to love. My sole purpose on this planet is to give and to be for others. Which what should be my stage name?

unknown 26:31

Spiritual jail.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

Uh so you know, that's uh going right into this next song is very much uh dovetail right to the last one here. It's called Love is the Rebel Song, which I like. I like the even the idea of the fact that love is rebellious. Because it really is. To be somebody who loves unconditionally is extremely rebellious in this society. Especially when you think about people who just aren't the same as you. For those on the online who don't live in Calgary, it's Stampede Week. And uh I always used to try to get out of the city during Stampede, because I'm no offense, I'm just not a big crowds and crazy cowboy person, so um, but yeah, so that's about as stampede as I get as that last one.

SPEAKER_08 32:43

I can't see you change that the music peace is a wheel as a tree on your head on your head all the sun is gonna run yourself to the sky something with beauty for my hair. Nothing is a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

Thank you. Awesomely done, guys. Awesomely done. Good morning, everyone. My name's Trevor. For those of you oh, thanks, Gregory. Craigry and I have met. For those of you who haven't met me yet, I'm part of a speaking team. Now, usually that means me hurting up other people to speak. Today it's my turn. And you're gonna get to learn a lot about me and some of my I'm gonna call them unique habits through the message. I want to launch right in though. And I want you to just think for a moment. When have you been at the end of your road? When have you had that feeling that life is just ringing? My collie got a very strange email. We opened it up Monday morning, and the subject line was I'm depressed. Very depressed. It was a really weird thing. This was coming from a medical doctor. And this wasn't someone who has a sense of humor. So my colleague got really worried when he started reading this, and he's like, Wow, what's going on? Because this doctor is someone who's at the top of his profession, has a terrific family. Well regarded in his community. And the doctor said, if I share a compression with my colleagues, they're gonna prescribe prescribe the right treatment, counseling or medication, because that's exactly what I would do. And I don't think that will work. Is it the end of his rope? So why was he reaching out to his financial planner? So the reason I reached out to you is despite the stresses of your business, career, family, and community, you share with me the great joys you get from the little things. I believe this has led you to a very different point in your life. One where you've been saving your life in a way that is unique to you, and that is what I'm looking for in my own life. This was a real plea for guidance. When my colleague shared this story with uh with the rest of us, he just emphasized, like, this is not a person who's in touch with his feelings or wanted to admit where he had gotten to this point in his life, and things were just getting harder and harder. When have you been at the end of your rope? If I say the word money, does that automatically get you there? Does it get you the time when you were there? What about your own work? Is it sometimes exhausting? Do they just want more and more from you? I know for sure. What have you been at the end of your rope? And I don't have time for anything else in my life. Not for me, family, friends working. It just feels like oh my god, like it has been used. When have you been there? I've got the easiest prescription. A friend of mine the spring when we were between snowstorm, snowstorm, snowstorm. Everyone remember that endless cycle? Sent me a beautiful picture of her beach place in Mexico. Yeah, that's how I felt at the time too. It was absolutely gorgeous. She said, Oh, I'm having a great time here. How is it going there? But isn't that the prescription? We get to the end of the room, just take a vacation. Go away for a week, a month. Probably maybe a year, I don't know. But that's supposed to get rid of that feeling. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it works. But I want to talk to you today. Right away. Don't let me talk about a vacation. We're gonna get there. Today we're gonna talk about the books that have influenced our lives, shelf life. I don't know what books have influenced your life. But I automatically had one that I'm like, oh I know. I know exactly where I can find the book that has definitely gotten me the most out of the end of the rope feeling. If you cannot clearly see this, I'm going to be talking about comic books this morning. Absolutely critical to my life and existence. But yeah, I think I found at least one answer in comic books. Growing up, to me what was interesting is I always like Superman, and it makes perfect sense. Superman rips off the glasses, takes off the suit, and he flies out and he saves the world. Bullets bounce off of him, he's always doing cool things. Who wouldn't like Superman? But you know what I could never understand? Afterwards. Why? Why would you put the glasses back on and a student tie? Who does that? And then go to work at a job. It made no sense. I can see I'm not the only one whose mind is like, yeah, if I think about this, this makes less and less sense. I have to take you back because I think part of shelf life is when you got introduced to a book. This was a regular Saturday occurrence. We got a little bit of an allowance, and I went and I got a Slurpee and a comic book at the local store. Getting home, the Slurpee's long gone, but the comic book fun is just starting. I would open it up and I'd look through the art. Yes, art, and I would love it. What's gonna happen this week? And then I would take the time on the couch to just read about what Superman's doing this week. Who is he saving? What's going on? It was perfect. What I can think back about why would comic books be so formative. This is a happy time for my childhood. There's also a beauty in the simplicity of the message. Life's problems can be fixed, and other people will come in to save you and fight injustice. It's beautiful. I always came to record hands. Did you ever wonder why do superheroes have a secret identity? Why would you change that and put the glasses on? I was just captured up at night. There's no wrong answer. Vince talked about this this morning. I think you can see at Friends Church, we have a unique spiritual journey. If I'm getting my spiritual guidance from comic books, that's a pretty unique it also means good bandwidth for all of us, doesn't it? But just think for a second. I've asked this question to a lot of my friends. Do you ever wonder why Subaru have a secret identity? Twenty seven years ago. I started my financial planning practice. Oh, if you ever want to get to the end of the rope feeling fast, start a brand new business with a ridiculous learning curve. Oh, and by the way, you don't eat if you don't bring in business. You get to the end of the rope quick, very quickly. I remember having to go out and do evening appointments, 6:30 p.m., 8 30 p.m. I am a beautiful morning person, but when the sun goes down, oh, I fade. And having to explain complicated financial problems to people, it was exhausting. And then you have to do mail drops and phone book follow-ups. I know 27 years ago, it feels like forever, but it was crazy. First year, it's kind of an adventure, like woo. Second year, it was grinding. I was always on. I couldn't ever not be in the financial planning mode. I needed to find business. So I never ever was taking breaks. And I could feel it was getting exhausting. Family was noticing I was getting a bit short. Did you ever wonder why superheroes have a secret identity? What if Superman, Superman, just needed a break? What if he needed a short rest? Just to step away. No one expected Clark Kent to save them. What if he just needed a short break? A rest to recharge. In those first years of my financial planning practice, there was no rest. I was just going and going and going, always on, always doing more. So why a short rest? Well, that's a reason for a secret identity. And Superman would know he is refreshed when he's not getting angry at saving people. So when have you been at the end of your rope? I think even Superman could get to the end of the rope. And having this ability to step into, put on a suit, and turn into Clark Kent really allows him to step back. Rest to recharge. Now, I know this might sound like a really big leap, but I'm going to take you from Superman to Jesus. Stay with me. When I look at the life of Jesus as told in the Bible, I see lots of miracles. Or let's just say if we're staying in this vernacular, superpowers. Who wouldn't want to turn water into wine? You're the best friend of every party you go to. Like that's amazing. I also think it's cool when you can walk on water. I'm like, whoo, that's pretty impressive. What always stands out to me is the time that Jesus heals people because that's something they couldn't do themselves. And I'm just thinking, that would be so awesome. And there's a particular story. Jesus heals a man with leprosy. A man with leprosy came up to Jesus and he said, he begged him on his knees, if you're willing, you can make me clean. Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand, touched the man, and said, I am willing. He said, Be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleaned. Oh man, as a kid, I thought that was the most awesome thing in the world. Like there can be superpowers of faith. You could help people who couldn't possibly help themselves. You could do amazing things. Man, that's comforting. But then Jesus does something that in my tradition never got hardly any light. Jesus says to this person he just healed, he sent him away at once with one strong warning. See that you don't tell anyone. Sit with that for a moment. See that you don't tell anyone? Like you just healed someone. They couldn't have done this themselves. Why hide it? But here's something I think that relates to comic books. I never liked this Clark Kent guy because I didn't see how important he was for Superman. Jesus, every once in a while, he takes breaks, he steps away. He says, I just can't heal everyone today. That short rest. And here's what I think we can learn from Superman and Jesus. You can't just double down. You can't just go saving more people. Jesus can't heal everyone. They get worn out. At the beginning of that story, the leopard comes up to him, begs, begs Jesus on his knees. If you're willing, make me clean. Jesus' answer is Jesus was indignant. What? I think Jesus caught himself right away and said, Ooh, I think I better step away. I think I might have I might be exhausted. Now I've been at the end of the rope. Having all that time being that financial planning practice, I had to make a change. For me, it was Dungeons and Dragons. For those of you who don't know this wonderful game, it's like a game of monopoly that never ends. Now, either that sounds like hell or heaven to you, just depending. But Dungeons and Dragons is a really interesting way. You step out of this world and you slay dragons. You know what no one expects me to do while I'm slaying dragons? Answer financial planning questions. It's all about taking the dragons out. What's even more interesting though is I really thought about this when I started this 26 years ago. I was the dungeon master. That's kind of the equivalent of director and script writer. So you have to do a lot of reading, you have to do a lot of preparation, you're writing up encounters. It's a lot of work. And yet, after leaving a session, completely recharged. I'm like, oh, this is great. I added more things into my life so that I could recharge. It wasn't about subtraction. If Superman and Jesus can't just double down and the doctor, remember the doctor who was depressed, very depressed? He was throwing himself back into everything, but he couldn't find a way out. And if we don't have time to retreat to the beach, I think the answer to this is we need something different. What's the best way to refresh you in your everyday lives? That's up to each of us. That's up to you. My dad, ultimate power napper. Like my whole life, like not just something recently. Like I've been around for a while. I remember my dad hitting the couch. 15 minutes later, new human being. He just scheduled it. My mom jigsaws. For me, they mess with my head, but for her, it brings her complete tranquility. Like she stepped away into that world. It was awesome. For me, it's obviously Dungeons and Dragons. But it's interesting when you look at that piece about what does that look like? What does it look like to add differences? Why had the doctor reach out to my colleague? Because he noticed my colleague was really busy. In fact, my business partner has a schedule that exhausts me. But you know what he does every week? He goes and shoots skeets. He said, you know, it's very relaxing to go shooting. I can see that's a stress relief. It seems believable. He scheduled it. And he said, here's the funny thing. You know, he said, when I'm holding a gun, no one asks me financial planning questions. True, right? Like he totally steps away. And the doctor had noticed this about him. He's like, your schedule's busier than mine, and yet you're relaxed. Because he found something different that he could bring into his life. So what different thing in your life refreshes you? What is it? I've given some pretty classic examples: naps, jigsaws, gaming. Do they work for you? Are you a knitter? Do you have to go shooting? Like Jesus just asked, he said, I just need a timeout. I just need you not to tell anyone else because I know how he treated you. This is the end of the rope for me. Superman literally put the glasses back on, buttoned up a suit, and said, I'm just gonna go work at a desk job. No expectations here. The only thing they needed for me is a story. And yet, it allowed him to step back in. They were never gone for long. I think this is the important part of his story. They're never gone for long. They said, Yeah, I'm available and I will come back. What different thing helps you? Because if Jesus couldn't just heal more people, if the doctor was still depressed, it doesn't appear that doubling down can do it. What would refresh you? Are you scheduling it? You know, our phones are a wonderful thing. You can put it in your calendar. Every two weeks, my DD group gets together. We've been doing this for a long time. It is so sacred that my mom will ask me, is this your Sunday? Because she knows there's no way I'm missing the gaming group. But maybe what they're appreciating about it is this makes me function as a refreshed, recharged human being in the world. I know when I go away and I miss it for a couple sessions, I can get a little bit grumpy or short. I'm like, oh, that's what's going on. Mostly we get together to laugh, but it's really important to me. Are you scheduling it? When I started like every two weeks scheduling my DD, my life improved. My dad, you don't want to miss him if he misses a nap. You'll know. My mom almost always has a puzzle going, my colleague shooting most weekends. You know, when we're at the end of the rope, one of the biggest excuses we can give is we just don't have time. This is gonna take some time. But if Jesus could say, Don't tell anyone, if you need a bubble bath, schedule the bubble bath. I think you'll be amazed at what will happen. I truly believe this fits us so perfectly at Friends Church because we talk here about giving and receiving water. That's what we talk about. We really believe that that's one of our sacred missions, and we want to do that in a sustainable way. A way that doesn't involve you burning yourself out, a way that allows you to keep coming back and being better. So, as you head out into this week, may we really be conscious of where are we? Are we getting angry or upset with people? Are we losing patience in situations that we shouldn't be? Okay, maybe I need to refresh. What strategy or what actually refreshes you? What recharges you? Maybe you need to read more comic books. That's possible. Next week's Hub is doing DD. That's our switch group. I get to be the dungeon master for that. That recharges me. By scheduling it though, I think we protect it and protect ourselves and our ability to keep giving back into the world. And that's really what we're at at Friends Church. So your assignment for this week is to use those phones for good purpose. You're welcome to borrow anything we've got. Tell people you have a nap. Jesus said it was okay. But let me encourage you, don't just think about this this week. This is summertime, and summertime has a little bit more flexibility, which is awesome. What type of rest refresh refreshes you? And then let me encourage you to go out there and do it. Have a great week, friends, church. Enjoy your Sunday.

SPEAKER_05 59:53

Why is it shooting for the fire? Is it not necessary? Scared be take no lie. Wake up the show.