I’m in mourning. Mourning the loss of another summer break.

I know, I know, I’m lucky that I get so much time off and nobody else gets so much vacation. However, summer is not all vacation for a teacher. I spent a large part of the month of July planning and brainstorming ideas for the new year, unpacking and organizing my room, and even did a few days of professional learning. Teachers don’t often take the entire summer off; they just do a different type of work.

Now, I did take a lot of time off in June. I spent a lot of time resting, relaxing, and enjoying my family and hobbies. It’s a necessary part of life.

Why?

Well, teaching from August to May is roughly the equivalent of sprinting a marathon, maybe even an ultra-marathon. There’s the six, hour-long classes to teach first of all, followed by planning, grading, meetings, parent contacts, and the list goes on. Even when I go home, it doesn’t really stop. My mind seems to constantly be in “school mode”, always trying to come up with new ideas and better ways of doing things.

It gets exhausting.

I’m not the only one. I know your jobs keep you running all the time as well.

Hence, God’s command to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

It’s not about a forced command, though. It’s about a necessity for staying fresh and keeping the energy. Without rest, burn out is inevitable.

Take a field for example. We know about soil exhaustion. If you plant a field too often without letting is rest, it will become exhausted and effectively die. It won’t grow crops anymore. It needs to rest so that it can replenish plant-nourishing nutrients.

We’ve found a solution, though. We use fertilizer and other soil-enriching products so that we don’t have to let the land rest. That’s so American of us.

We just need another cup of coffee or a Monster, and we’ll be okay, right?

It’s going to catch up eventually.

Take time to rest regularly. Make it a permanent part of your schedule. Take a week vacation. Take a least one day, the whole day, and don’t do any work. Schedule time, at least an hour, every evening to relax.

I stopped bringing assignments home to grade because I would never stop. Close the laptop. Ignore the to-do list. It’s going to be there in the morning, and it will always have something on it.

Listen to that quiet voice inside, just like Elijah, that says, “Just rest.”