Room to Breathe | Chris Zauner | Words To Live By (Week 4)

Pastor Chris Zauner opens Week 4 of the “Words To Live By” series by describing a familiar experience: finally sitting down, yet finding that the mind is still racing. Unfinished projects, difficult conversations, money concerns, forgotten tasks, messages, and emails keep people mentally at work. Even rest can produce guilt because they feel they should be doing something else. Zauner contrasts this with the opposite problem—resenting work, feeling overwhelmed by supervisors or customers, and wondering whether anything is ever enough. His conclusion is that people can be anxious while working and guilty while resting because they have distorted ideas about both. He reads Exodus 20:8–11, where God commands Israel to remember the Sabbath, work for six days, and stop working on the seventh. The command applies not only to the head of a household but also to children, servants, foreigners, and livestock. Zauner’s central claim is that God gives His people both meaningful responsibility and a stopping point: “God teaches us to work for His glory and to rest in His faithfulness.” Work and rest are not competing identities or alternatives; both belong to God.

Zauner argues that work is not merely a consequence of sin or a necessary evil to endure until retirement. Genesis 2:15 says God placed Adam in the garden “to work it and to keep it,” so meaningful responsibility existed before the fall. Sin introduced painful toil and struggle, but work itself was part of God’s good design. Building a house, teaching a child, maintaining clean water, caring for an aging parent, and changing diapers can all contribute to the flourishing of people and communities. Ordinary work becomes an expression of love when it is done for others, whether it happens in a church, classroom, office, hospital, shop, home, or farm. Because work is done ultimately for God, Zauner urges honesty, commitment, attention, effort, and excellence. Citing Colossians 3:23–24, he says believers should work “heartily as for the Lord and not for men.” That perspective changes how someone works for an imperfect boss: the supervisor still matters, but the deeper motivation is representing God. At the same time, work must not become the way people establish their worth. When every assignment tests identity, criticism feels like an attack, another person’s success feels like personal failure, and metrics or accomplishments become attempts to quiet inner anxiety. Zauner asks whether people are working from the love God has already given them or trying to establish a worth their work can never provide.

Zauner illustrates the danger of making ministry performance the basis of identity through his own first four or five years of pastoring. He preached every Sunday, sometimes led worship as well, and felt like a “ping-pong ball” switching microphones. He worked late nights and early mornings, remained mentally absent while sitting with his family, and kept commentaries and a laptop open because he was afraid his preparation and preaching would not be good enough. Although he told himself he wanted to do his best, he recognized that fear, insecurity, people-pleasing, and a lack of trust in God were driving him. He eventually repented of that pattern and learned to trust that Christ would build the church. His responsibility was to prepare faithfully and honor God; the outcome did not rest entirely on his shoulders. Zauner applies the same distinction to jobs, school, and family responsibilities: people are responsible for faithfulness, obedience, and stewardship, but they are not responsible for being God. That freedom allows someone to pursue excellence without demanding perfection, receive correction without falling apart, acknowledge limits, and ask for more help when necessary. He also cautions that tiredness does not automatically mean someone has worked wrongly. He calls it possible to experience “holy fatigue,” since Jesus Himself grew tired and faithful service can be exhausting. The key question is what lies beneath the work: serving in love, or trying to prove that one deserves to be loved.

Zauner explains that Sabbath means ceasing or stopping. God worked in creation and rested on the seventh day—not because He lacked strength, but to establish a rhythm for creatures who do have limits. People do not need to collapse before they are permitted to rest. Yet stopping is difficult because work rarely feels finished. When someone sits down, thoughts may accuse them: they should have done more, someone will be disappointed, they are falling behind, or God expects more. Zauner says these voices push people toward endless production and away from remembering who actually provides for them. He distinguishes genuine neglected responsibilities from the false belief that rest must wait until everything is done. Carelessness or dishonesty should be addressed, but even faithful work leaves unfinished tasks. Israel received the Sabbath after God had already rescued them from Egypt. Deuteronomy 5:15 connects the command to that deliverance: they were to remember that God brought them out “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” They did not have to make enough bricks or accumulate enough personal time off to earn freedom or rest. God was teaching a formerly enslaved people a new rhythm in which work had a place and a limit. Zauner says modern people can carry old patterns of workaholism, addiction, or achievement into freedom in Christ. Sabbath interrupts the belief that constant usefulness justifies life. God continues to love people when they stop producing.

Zauner emphasizes that Sabbath is not simply escaping work. It is a positive practice of enjoying God, remembering what He has done, giving thanks, and receiving the good that work has made possible. He tells a story about wanting to build a wooden chair. He imagines selecting the wood, measuring it, getting advice about its engineering, cutting and sanding it, and finishing it properly. But if he immediately began building another chair—and then another—without ever sitting in one, someone would reasonably ask what the chairs were for. The point is that work is meant to make room for an experience of receiving and enjoying its fruits. He applies the image to ordinary life: people may work to provide a home but fail to be present in it, work to care for family but rarely enjoy family, or serve in church without slowing down enough to receive from God and His people. Rest can include laughing, eating, listening, having unhurried conversations, and enjoying relationships rather than turning every interaction into correction or instruction. It also provides perspective. Constant activity highlights unfinished responsibilities while hiding evidence of God’s provision, growth, and faithfulness. For Zauner, the people loved by a person need more than that person’s accomplishments; they need presence. Sabbath is therefore communal and relational, not merely isolation or personal recovery.

Zauner turns to anxiety about money and provision. He acknowledges that financial needs and responsibilities are real, but says the deeper question is whether people believe they must secure everything through more work. Exodus 16 provides the picture of manna: Israel gathered what God provided each day, and before the Sabbath they received enough for two days. They participated by gathering, but they did not create the provision. Likewise, employers, customers, opportunities, and abilities may be means God uses, but “God is my source.” Matthew 6:31–33 reinforces this perspective: the heavenly Father knows what people need, so they should seek first God’s kingdom rather than allowing worry to control their lives. Zauner does not present this as a promise that financial hardship disappears. People should still work, plan, budget, seek help, and take wise action, but anxiety is not what holds life together. Sabbath becomes a practical confession: “I will be faithful with what you have entrusted to me, and I will trust you with what I cannot control.” The command’s inclusion of servants, foreigners, children, and animals also shows that rest is not reserved for powerful people. Leaders should consider how they schedule others, how much availability they demand, and whether families receive attention rather than only instructions. Jesus’ statement in Mark 2—that the Sabbath was made for humanity—means it is a gift, not a burden or an excuse to ignore people in need. Zauner notes that Christians differ on the precise application of the command, but still need a regular rhythm of stopping, worshiping, receiving, and enjoying life together.

Zauner recommends several concrete practices for the week: set aside a real period of time to stop ordinary work, aim for a regular day rather than waiting for exhausted minutes, remember God’s faithfulness through prayer and Scripture, worship and enjoy relationships, share a meal or have an unhurried conversation, and allow others to help. Rest should also make room for mercy—helping someone lonely, bringing unresolved hurt to God, apologizing where necessary, or helping carry another person’s burden. He warns against turning rest into another performance. He then says an empty calendar alone cannot produce rest. A person may take a day off and remain driven by fear that they are inadequate, someone is disappointed, or everything will collapse. The deeper answer is Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28–30: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus offers rest for the soul, not merely reduced activity. Through His death and resurrection, He accomplished what people cannot accomplish by working harder or becoming useful enough to earn salvation; acceptance is received by grace through faith. The message closes with a call to open-handed trust. Zauner asks listeners to consider whether they need to trust God with work, rest, or provision, then prays for diligence, integrity, excellence, freedom from guilt, and provision. He asks God to help their work express love and their rest express trust, ending with the congregation standing for one more song.