Sustainable Activism Includes Rest
I’ve come to recognize I am an exponentially more kind, patient, and attentive person after I have had a good night’s sleep. With every thirty minutes of uninterrupted shuteye, I become a better listener and more attuned to the thoughts and feelings of those around me. I care about what my wife and children say and seek to understand them as they are rather than through the filter of my assumptions or annoyances. I know this because of what happens every day around 7:30 p.m.
When Restoration Rhythms Break Down
Somewhere deep in my subconscious I am convinced that at this time, my children should be washed, dressed, teeth brushed, prayed for, and blessed to sleep. I have told myself that “Baba” is off the clock and my children become problems to be solved, not tiny humans to be loved. Instead of loving, I am irritable and short. These are just some of the signals that my rhythms of restoration are not enough.
I wish this lack of kindness and gentleness was confined to my home and those few hours each day, but that’s not true. In the middle of the day, even after solid hours of rest overnight, I can be prideful, unkind, and dismissive. The suffering of others becomes an inconvenience for me as I feel stressed or stretched. Overwhelmed, I lose my ability to live out of my deepest values and choose comfort, convenience, and survival instead. I preach that I want to love my neighbor, but in practice, my actions don’t match those words.
Restoration Rhythms Reveal Our Limits
This is a common occurrence on our commute home: a woman in need approaches our car. She is at the stoplight selling mangoes as her daughter hangs on her back. She becomes a distraction I want to avoid. I shove her and her humanity away. She becomes a cone to be avoided in the desired trajectory of my day, not a daughter made in the image of God making ends meet on the edges of our economy. I beat myself up for not having cash, setting a bad example for my kids, and being a bad Christian.
How Restoration Rhythms Shape Our Responses
On other days, I decide whether to answer the people texting or calling my phone based on whether they are going to complicate or complement my day. In the end I usually send them to voicemail or leave as unread with no intention of going back because I just don’t want to be bothered. Then I feel guilty for not making the time to check in and reach out. In both cases, I relent to living in reaction instead of with intention and within limits.
Why We Need Daily Restoration Rhythms
These and other examples of the dis-integration of my actions and values litter my life. If I haven’t showered, eaten a solid meal, am dehydrated after back-to-back meetings, or encounter a real emergency, order flees. I lack the skills and structures to give myself good boundaries and the will and means to keep them. The changes I desire within myself and want to reflect in the world are not scaffolded, so I fall apart. And when I share my predicament with others, I find that they are falling apart, too.
Restoration Rhythms Strengthen Community
Some might be rested, but most are lonely and running the race of life in pursuit of comfort, stability, and security for themselves and their families through blunt effort. Like me, they have moments of clarity when the seeds of the gospel land and inspire temporary changes. However, the individual and communal habits and practices that encourage us during hard times and lovingly confront us when we get off track are often lacking or nonexistent.
Building a Life Shaped by Restoration Rhythms
What I Actually Need
What I actually need is not just rest each night but daily rhythms of restoration. My body, mind, and spirit require regular nourishment to stay grounded in the abundance of the Lord each day. Without these markers to orient myself toward beauty and resistance, I turn inward. Pride, narcissism, and hurry define how I engage with people and situations around me. I allow greed, anxiety, and the need to feel significant and valuable—ideas and institutions contrary to the kingdom of God and the good news of Jesus—to determine my self-perception as well as my posture and behavior toward others. A dangerous cycle continues where I am unable to perceive what is impacting me and cannot see how my thoughts, words, and actions impact others. Instead of having an abundant life and thriving in loving shalom, I exist in constant striving to project and protect my false self.
If rest is the foundation, the rhythms of restoration are the walls, studs, and joists. When we are well-rested, we are better able to discern what people, patterns, and practices fill our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual cups, and we are able to pour out and participate in the mutuality God made us for. These are necessary for a house to stand.
Adapted from Beauty and Resistance by Jonathan P. Walton. ©2025 by Jonathan P. Walton. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press. www.ivpress.com.
Jonathan Walton is a writer, speaker, and facilitator at the intersection of faith, justice and emotional health. He leads Beauty and Resistance Cohorts, writes The Crux on Substack and is a senior resource specialist for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship focusing on political discipleship and civic engagement. He has written five books, including Twelve Lies That Hold America Captive.
