Part of Walking the GoHealth Way blog series
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Breath in.
Breath out.
Do it again, and this time let the exhale be longer than the inhale.
This is one simple way of helping to calm our nervous system. Science now has language for something human beings have known for a very long time: breathing can calm us down and reconnect us with our bodies and the reality around us. It helps us become present.
Breath is at the heart of our Christian faith too. The breath of God hovered over creation. God breathed life into humanity. The Spirit of God comes like breath and wind at Pentecost. The Hebrew word ruach carries the sense of breath, wind and spirit. From the very beginning, life is connected with breath and the presence of God.
Breathing is the very first thing we do, and the very last thing we will do on earth. Between those two breaths, we live our lives by receiving and giving away breath. Perhaps there is something here about rest too. We are not designed simply to breathe out. We need to breathe in. We receive before we give. We pause before we act. We rest, and then we return. There is a rhythm to being alive.
We know that ministry can be costly. Being a healing presence is a tough gig. There is so much pain in the world, and there is no end to the healing that is needed. It is hard to carry the vision of the Kingdom of God, and its power to transform lives and communities. It is tough when we take seriously a call to walk in the image of God and to offer the hope and healing of the love of the resurrection, while also seeing what is happening in the world around us. It is not easy to carry this call, and to live with the level of uncertainty that is in the world today. Pretending otherwise does not make us faithful; it makes us tired.
Therefore, it is no wonder that people are tired. Especially people who might call themselves healers, soul workers, carers, activists or those who carry responsibility for others. The more deeply we care, the more easily we can believe that there is always something more we should be doing.
This is true for all of us, but perhaps particularly true for leaders, who additionally carry grief, conflict, expectation, institutional anxiety, other people’s pain, safeguarding responsibilities, change, decline, hope and vocation. There is a special kind of loneliness in being the leader of a community that is itself about belonging, while feeling that you cannot always share the worry, burden, anger or tiredness with the community you lead or those who lead you.
Rest isn’t an indulgent break from ministry. It is part of learning to inhabit ministry as a human being rather than an inexhaustible resource. And burnout is about more than simply being busy. It can emerge when there is a persistent mismatch between workload and capacity, but also when there is a lack of control, recognition, community, fairness or alignment with our values. We can become exhausted not only by how much we do, but by the conditions in which we are trying to do it.
We all know what we are supposed to do. Get a spiritual director. Take time off. Eat well. Exercise. Pray. Sleep. Take a Sabbath. The problem is not always that we don’t know what to do. The problem is that we often don’t do it. We don’t value ourselves enough to give ourselves the time we need to rest. We feel guilty. We worry about what will happen if we stop. We tell ourselves that other people need us more. There is a deep underlying anxiety about rest in the church today.
There is a danger that our church culture celebrates sacrifice and exhaustion as measurements of faithfulness or success. But the truth is that they are not. And in many of the things that matter most in ministry, we will never really be able to measure our impact. Who knows what a prayer does? A pastoral visit? A conversation at the right moment? A welcome offered to someone who has felt invisible? We may never know what grows from the seeds we plant.
Yet rest is a theological imperative. Sabbath, rest and receiving are not interruptions to the Christian life; they are practices through which we remember who we are and who God is. We are creatures, not machines. We are beloved before we are useful. Our bodies, minds, spirits and relationships all need nourishment. Rest reminds us that the world does not depend entirely on us.
What helps? Culture change. Habit formation. Creating pockets of people and communities who hold one another and free one another to rest. Building rhythms that make rest possible rather than simply telling exhausted people that they should take better care of themselves. Creating places where the leader does not have to be the person holding everybody else. Finding people with whom you can be honest about the things you cannot say from the front. Community and peer connection are not extras to sustaining vocation; they are part of it.
None of this is easy. But it is essential if we are to carry a vocation without allowing our desire to care to harm us. We need places where we can breathe in as well as breathe out. Places where we can receive as well as give. Places where we are known not because of what we produce or provide, but simply because we belong.
This is part of why GoHealth puts belonging at the centre of healing. We do training courses. We create resources. We equip churches and leaders. All of that matters. But it is not enough. We need cultural change. We need people and places to belong, so that we can foster the habits, relationships and outlook that allow us to flourish.
You don’t have to come to GoHealth because you’ve failed at ministry. Come because ministry is costly. Come because leadership is hard. Come because all of us need places where we can be replenished, encouraged, stretched, prayed with, connected and reminded again that we are beloved.
GoHealth is not simply about telling people how to flourish. We are trying to be one of the communities in which flourishing becomes possible.
So, for a moment, breathe in.
And breathe out.
You are not an inexhaustible resource.
You are a human being, created and beloved by God.
You belong.
And perhaps sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is simply receive the breath that is already being given to you.
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Your next step
- Join The GoHealth Community for weekly resources and monthly spaces
- Listen to a podcast on Rest
- Explore online training and reflective journeys to support your wellbeing
Go deeper into The GoHealth Way with our reflective online course
The GoHealth Way is our shared way of living, leading and working for healing, hope and belonging. It grows from a simple conviction: we are not meant to heal alone. We become more attentive to ourselves, to one another, to our communities and to the world around us – and, in doing so, we can join in with what God is already doing.
This course introduces the vision, values, theology and practices that shape the GoHealth Way. It explores our story and history, the change we long to see in the world, and what it means to nurture flourishing and reduce suffering. It also recognises that this way of living can be costly, so we explore the importance of rest, renewal, community and the things that bring us alive.
This isn’t simply a course to complete. It is an invitation to a way of life we are learning together.
Along the way, you’ll be invited to reflect on your own life, the difference you want to make in the world, and whether you might want to join us in building a movement of healing, hope and belonging.
What you’ll explore
- The story and vision of GoHealth
- Our theology of Christian health and healing
- Belonging and why it matters for healing
- The values and principles that shape our work
- What it means to be a healing presence
- Our approach to health, wellbeing and flourishing
- Our history and the impact we are seeking to make
- How you can join in