Rest That Heals

Your life can be full of good things and still feel spiritually empty. We open up about a real health wake-up call, from triglycerides in the 350s to pre-diabetic markers, and how it forced us to face a bigger question: what happens when responsibility, routines, and even “healthy discipline” slowly push God to the margins?

We spend most of our time in Luke 10, where Jesus ties together a lawyer’s question about eternal life, the Good Samaritan, and Martha and Mary. The thread is attention. When our hearts get consumed by schedules, productivity, image, and control, we start loving God with leftovers and we stop seeing people clearly. Neighbor love gets complicated fast when grudges and categories creep in, and Jesus presses on all of it with uncomfortable clarity.

We also talk about spiritual rest beyond a Sabbath day, practical fasting as a way to give the body and soul room to breathe, and why struggles are not always punishment but often realignment. If you feel like you are doing everything yet missing the “one necessary thing,” this conversation will help you slow down and sit at Jesus’ feet again. Subscribe to Kingdom Chaos, share this with a friend who is burned out, and leave a review with what detail you need to release this week.

Music by AlexGrohl from Pixabay

Transcript

Welcome To Kingdom Chaos

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Kingdom Chaos, a podcast for anyone trying to live a purpose and faith-filled life in a loud and messy world. Jesus said his kingdom in none of this world, yet here we are navigating real life and real struggles. I'm not a guru, just someone learning that God's grace meets us even in the chaos. This is Kingdom Chaos where faith meets real life and purpose is still found in the mess.

Health Wake-Up And A Rest Plan

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Hey guys, welcome back to Kingdom Chaos. My name is Troy, and Amy and I have talked to you in the past about how busy we were in parenting and how a lot we had a lot of distractions early on in our marriage, and even more recently in my workouts, how they started to push my time, my quiet time away from God. And uh recently received some test results that weren't so good. My triglycerides are in the 350s. I have unfavorable uh kidney markers, pre-diabetic, and now I'm on this spiritual and health journey to give my spirit and my body rest. The Bible speaks a lot about resting in God beyond the Sabbath, the day that God gave man to rest. It even talks about giving the soil time to rest for better crop production. So every seventh day I'm gonna give my body rest spiritually and physically, and I'm gonna do that through a 24-hour fast. My health issues revolved around my pancreas producing insulin, so I'm gonna give that organ a day of rest so it won't have to produce as much, and during the other six days, I'm gonna eat food so it doesn't strain that organ so much. So, so why am I telling you all this? Uh, I want to take you on a journey today through my quiet time with the Lord that I had yesterday and how it all connects. So stay with me.

Luke 10 And The Drift

SPEAKER_00 2:00

So let's go through this section of scripture that's been opening up my eyes to what I'm going through in life today. And Jesus connects three stories together in Luke 10, and I've slowed down enough to be able to notice what's going on here. And the more I've sat with it, the more I've realized this struggle that I've been going through in my life. It starts out with this lawyer asking Jesus, How do I get eternal life? And Jesus says, Well, what's written in the law? And the lawyer comes back and he quotes part of the Shema, which is a declaration of faith in Judaism, and it's in Deuteronomy 19. It says, Love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and all your mind. And the lawyer finishes off with the end of Leviticus 19, 18, love your neighbor as yourself. Now this is important, make a middle note of Leviticus 19, 18. We're going to come back to that in a minute, but Jesus says, You're right. And then the lawyer says, Well, who's my neighbor? And then Jesus goes into the story of the Good Samaritan and immediately after that follows up with Martha and Mary. And I don't think this order is accidental because the three stories connect in one big idea, and that's what consumes our heart and attention. And I started to realize how in my own life I have been consumed with details and responsibilities, my schedule, work, productivity, and just trying to get everything together in a schedule while slowly drifting from simply sitting with God and building relationships. So Jesus says the greatest commandment is love God with everything heart, soul, mind, strength. Not the leftover attention, not spare time, and not whenever I can get everything else handled, but with everything. And I started thinking about myself lately because there have been seasons in my life where I've loved responsibility more than I rested with God. Not intentionally. This was a slow drift from Him. I wasn't trying to drift from Him. I just slowly filled my life with so much stuff there wasn't enough room for quiet time. And I think a lot of us do that. Hopefully you can relate. Maybe you can't. I don't know. Maybe I'm the only one. Do any of these things strike you as they take too much of your time, like work, kids' schedules, sports, activities, bills, stress, phones, social media, fitness, goals, projects. None of those things are necessarily sinful by themselves, but they can slowly consume all of our heart, mind, and strength.

The Good Samaritan And Real Neighbor Love

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Then Jesus flows into the good Samaritan and he talks about who his neighbor really is. And what's interesting is all the religious people passed over this hurting man. The priest, the Levite, the one that stopped was the Samaritan. Now that story hits different when you understand that Jews look down on Samaritans. Jews viewed Samaritans as unclean. When you look at John 4, you notice this when Jesus is talking to the woman at the well, the woman's kind of shocked that Jesus wants her to give him water because he would make himself unclean if he would touch her or touch the jar that he would drink water from. Remember when I said we would need to come back to Leviticus 19, 18? Well, here it is. At the end of that verse, it's love your neighbor as yourself. But the beginning is do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people. So the people listening to Jesus might have even expected the Samaritan to be a villain in the story. But what if they knew their scripture really well and thought about everyone being equal instead of a villain? The Samaritan is the one who actually stops and helps his neighbor. And I think part of what Jesus exposes there is that how we can know scripture, know religion, we can know church culture, but miss the heart of God. You can become so consumed with image and responsibility, routines, and performance that we stop seeing people clearly. And I think that can happen in our own homes too. Amy and I talked about raising our kids where life was nonstop, sports, travel ball, practice work, all these things that took up our life. Bills were all over schedules. I mean, just all this stuff just piled up on each other. And again, it's not that sports were bad either. You know, kids can learn a lot from sports. There's a lot of life lessons. But looking back, I can see how we were consumed by all the activities and all the details. We were constantly moving and tired and planning for that next thing. And spiritually we were starving more than abiding in Jesus. John 14 4 says, Abide in me. I think sometimes we can become so focused on managing life, we stop slowing down enough to love God deeply and love people well.

Martha And Mary With Modern Distraction

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Then Luke immediately moves into Martha and Mary, and that story hits me because I know how much I relate to Martha. And that's a daily struggle in my life. And God does not remove that thorn from my side so that I can remember that I can't do this on my own, but I have to abide in Jesus. So Jesus comes to their house. Mary sits at Jesus' feet, and Martha is distracted with preparation and details and serving and responsibilities. And eventually Martha gets upset and frustrated and comes to Jesus and says, Jesus, don't you care that I'm doing all this stuff for myself? And Jesus looked at her and says, Martha, you're worried and upset over all these details, but the only thing that is necessary is right here. Mary had has discovered it. The verse hits me heavy because I think most of my life I've lived like Martha, always thinking ahead, wanting to fix stuff, carrying these pressures that I was never meant to carry and worry about things I was I should have given to God. And I don't think Martha was doing things that were bad. It's not that serving was bad or that responsibilities were bad. That's what's important to realize. The problem was the details consumed her attention so much that she missed the moment that was sitting right in front of her. And I've done that so often in my life. Have you done that? I think a lot of families are there right now. Running, stressing, multitasking, and eventually don't even know how to slow down anymore. That was Martha. Worried and upset over the details.

Workouts Productivity And Realignment

SPEAKER_00 8:24

And then recently, God started showing me the same pattern again in another area of my life, my workouts. I shared with you before how my workouts started to slowly creep into my quiet time with God, and they became my priority. And the workouts got longer and my quiet time got shorter, and I didn't even realize what was happening. What started healthy became something I depended on emotionally, and I liked feeling productive, uh liked feeling disciplined and strong. You see, the thorn in my side keeps coming up and tormenting me, but God says, Rest in my grace, it is sufficient. Rest in my power, for it is perfect in weakness. That comes from 1 Corinthians 12, 7 and 9. And through some recent health issues, God started to slow me down and exposing things in me again. And it's not as punishment, as it's realignment. I think sometimes we assume carrying struggles means that God's angry with us or he's going to punish us for some reason, but sometimes they reveal what we've been depending on besides God, like work or schedules, accomplishments, productivity, control, fitness, success. And because of those health struggles, I'm I'm fasting more regularly, spending more time in prayer, meditating on scripture more, and just plan on slowing down more. I feel better when I'm consistently spending time with God, not rushing through prayer or a devotional, not multitasking while worship music plays in the background. I mean really sitting with him, reading slowly, meditating on scripture, praying quietly, fasting, just being still. I feel more grounded, more peaceful, uh, less anxious, less emotionally driven. And I think what Jesus was showing Martha is that there will always be details. There will always be responsibilities. Schedules will always be there, pressures will never go away, things will always demand our attention, but if we're not careful, the details can slowly start to pull us away from the presence of God.

Slow Down Sit With Jesus

SPEAKER_00 10:30

So when you read Luke 10 now, I want you to try and see that flow and see what's important. The lawyer started by asking about eternal life, and then the conversation moved that the importance is God and people. And who are people? Everyone is people, even the ones that you might not like. And then it moves in the Martha and Mary, don't focus on production, but focus on Jesus. You know, in Matthew 22, 40, Jesus says, All the laws and prophets hang on these two commandments, loving God and loving people. Love God with everything. Love your neighbor well, and don't become so consumed with the details of life that you stop sitting at Jesus' feet. And I think for a lot of us that's a real struggle. Not that we hate God or we intentionally walk away from Him. We're just distracted, distracted by work and schedules and just life in general. And maybe the answer isn't doing more, maybe it's slowing down enough to sit with Jesus again. Because I can tell you personally, I feel different when I spend consistent time with God. Not because life becomes easier, but because my soul stops trying to carry something alone. Those who are struggling with productivity as purpose, remember Micah 6.8. What does the Lord require of you to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with

Prayer For Rest And Clarity

SPEAKER_00 11:58

God? Let's pray. Lord, I lift up everyone today to you that's listening to this podcast that they can rest in you. Help us rest in you. Help us see the things that are pulling us away from you. Help us clear the noise of life so that we can see you clearly and sit at your feet, Lord. We just thank you so much for what you're doing in our lives. We need you every single day in every area. Thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So Jesus comes to their health, half, half, Jesus comes to the health, and he's full of butter.