Formational Hustle

Hustle lifestyle reinforces itself into your being. Enacting the cultural worldview of value in busyness instead of the kingdom worldview of rhythms and Sabbath rest, will lead you to become a kind of person – a hustler.

As Christians, it is easy for us to think that formation happens exclusively through the mind. That we are formed primarily by the books we read, the sermons we listen, the studies we attend, and the education we receive. But there is a synergy between our thinking and our doing because action reinforces our thinking.

Do we take a sabbath because we are rested? No. We observe the Sabbath in order to be rested (at least in part). Our action influences our inner experience and sometimes even our thinking on the matter. Say that a period of rest is enforced upon you for some reason. It may be that after such a time you begin to finally see the value behind rest and that influences what you think of it.

The current world obsession however is one of productivity and efficiency. I’m pretty confident many of us think this way. When asked about work or the week, it is not at all uncommon for Christians to measure their week by their productivity or efficiency – you got things done and that makes it a good week (or not).

Pushed to an absurd limit, resting is an incredibly inefficient and unproductive time on purpose. It flies in the face of the current dominating world narrative behind productivity. If we were trying to be lenient, and I think this is what we do most, we would say that rest is necessary and enables us to return and work more productively and efficiently. So in this view productivity and efficiency is the end, and rest is the means (or a means) of achieving that end.

A kingdom perspective on sabbath is unlike this view. Sabbath is a God honouring practice in itself. To rest from work is to trust in God. To trust in God is the end of all our practices – even and especially the practice of not practising anything on purpose.

Do you think you’re doing nothing when you’re doing nothing? Especially when you know you could be doing something specifically for the Lord? I hope not, because you are doing a lot when you’re not doing anything and doing it for the Lord. To trust him with all things is both to work for him wholeheartedly, and to rest in him wholeheartedly.

Discernment is required. Separating worldly ways of living from kingdom ways of living will be difficult especially if Christians you know and are forming you are themselves subtly formed by the world.

As diligently as you keep the other commands of God, flee from sexual immorality, speak encouraging words as opposed to the vulgar words, don’t lie, cheat or steal, you should be diligent in keeping a pattern of rest and Sabbath.

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Hansen, C., & Robinson, C. J. (Eds.). (2019). Faithful endurance: The joy of shepherding people for a lifetime. Crossway.