Rest With a Purpose

Why the Bible’s answer to idleness isn’t productivity—but attention directed toward God

Idleness. The mind’s baseline passive state. A state in which anxious people wish to be, and hyper-active people aim to avoid. I find myself bouncing between these two extremes but primarily trying to avoid it. But when idleness finds me, it often leaves me worse than it found me.

The next time you’re in public, take a moment to look around. Idleness is the mode of our age. I’m shocked as I sit in coffee shops each Friday morning with my daughter at how full the seats can be, while simultaneously the room feels empty. Everyone is living in their own idle world. We’ve brought cubicle culture into the public and we’ve accessorized it with seasonal lattes and extension cords. We maintain our silence and our distance, ensuring that everyone knows we’re here for work, not pleasure.

I’m just as guilty. I fill momentary voids in my day with idle scrolling, and though some claim this is a result of our modern tech-addiction, the solutions that many provide appear only temporary and often have simple workarounds. We try to solve mindlessness with self-help books on productivity only to realize that over-working leads to burnout and burnout lands us back in idleness.

Our culture doesn’t know the difference between idleness and rest.

In a recent conversation with a friend, we commiserated over our desire to be less screen focused and more engaged with the world around us, when I wondered what solution the scriptures might offer for the idle mind.

What Scripture Says About Idleness

It turns out, the Bible has a lot to say about idleness. Though, it doesn’t always use that word, the idea spans the entire biblical narrative. Other words it uses to describe this state are slothful, sluggish, slack, movable, and lazy.

But each way idleness is described is offered in the negative. The idle life is not a life commended.

In Proverbs 10:4-5 the one with a slack hand causes poverty. Proverbs 15:19 describes the sluggards was as like a hedge of thorns. Proverbs 31:27 describes one who looks well to the ways of her household as not eating “the bread of idleness.”

In all of these passages, not only is idleness given a foolish appearance, but the idle man is described as deprived of certain qualities that are characteristic of the life of a believer. Freedom (see pr.12:24), rest (see prov. 19:15), provision (proverbs 28:19).

One of the clearest warnings of this is in the parable of the talents. After the Master comes to collect, the servant who hid his talent in the dirt is rebuked for being “wicked and slothful.” His master was deserving of interest. In neglecting what he had been called to steward, the servant neglected what he had been called to do, and the one who called him to do it.

The danger in idleness is that it’s an omissive sin. These sins are more difficult to see, because they’re—by definition— the absence of action, rather than wrong actions we can observe. idleness can, at times give the appearance of rest, but if we’re not self-scrutinous, it may turn into neglect.

One practical way to guard against idleness in our modern moment is by tracking your screen time stats over the next month. How many times throughout the day did you pick up your phone? How much of your screen time was spent purposefully?

I’m not advocating for a life of joyless productivity and no time for rest and entertainment. Rather, my point is that scripture’s warning against idleness should refine our understanding of what it means to rest. Rest has an end. A purpose. A Telos. It’s not vegging out, but it’s delight in God.

Idleness Vs. Rest

Embracing the biblical idea that rest has a goal can solve the mindless scroll problem. Devices like Brick and apps like Opal are great at addressing the problems of overusing our phones. But they don’t solve the problem of idleness. They assist us in disengaging from things that steal our time, but they don’t help us to make the most of our time by becoming who we were made to be.

Rest is commanded in Exodus 20 with the installation of the Sabbath commandment with an explicit focus. Holiness. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Usually however, we associate holiness with work—not rest. In our overly work-centric culture, it doesn’t compute that rest could contribute to what it means to be a successful or virtuous person, but in God’s command to observe this day of rest, he’s teaching us that it is essential.

The problem with how our modern world thinks about rest is that it assumes it must be mindless. Think vacation, scrolling, binging, and disconnecting. When the world recognizes the dangers of mindless rest, it tries to fix it by promoting mindful productivity. The Bible however suggests a different solution—mindful rest. Rest wherein our limitations are embraced and our faith is engaged.

This means, we’re to rest with our minds engaged. We’re to rest with an end in mind. We’re to rest to the glory of God, for his worship, and our holiness. Mindless rest leaves the door open for temptation, anxiety, and obfuscation.

God is not like a micro-manager, checking our productivity scores and making sure we’re always producing. Rather, he’s like a physician who has prescribed a regular dose of gospel rest.

There remains a sabbath rest for the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9-10) When we rest with our minds fixed on God we remind ourselves that the world isn’t running on an energy that we can provide, but on God’s schedule and at his pleasure.

The Mindful Mind

What does it actually look like to engage in gospel mindful rest? Philippians 4:8 is admittedly not about rest, but it is about our minds.

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

The word here used for “think” does not simply mean to give something a passing thought. Rather, it means to weigh, take account, or meditate on with a view to obtain it.¹ Paul’s command is not simply to think about something, but to think in order to obtain. For the Christian, dwelling on the virtues of Philippians 4:8 assists us in making them our own.

In other words, Paul is not describing a mind that drifts, but a mind that is in control of where it dwells. Not simply avoiding negative or destructive thoughts, but stewarding our attention. Paul knows that there is a connection on what we dwell on, what we love, and who we become.

Without sounding too much like a social media scrooge, we can’t ignore the fact that the algorithm is not trained to help us live up to Paul’s call to mindfulness. Paul is inviting believers to be more than just influential or productive, but virtuous. Christlike. The algorithm is training us for greed, outrage, and distraction. Paul, however reminds us that the Christian is in pursuit of truth, beauty, and virtue.

When we embrace Philippians 4:8, our rest becomes less about disconnection and more about formation. The goal of our attention is not merely so that we may be able to accomplish more, but that we would find deeper delight in God. This purposeful restoration was intended by God and our participation in it reshapes us into the image of God and restores us to the life he made us for.

Imagine if we responded to the temptation of mindlessness with biblical mindfulness? Rather than emptying our minds in the pursuit of detachment, we filled our minds in view of God’s blessings?

The next time we’re waiting in line for our coffee, surrounded by glowing screens and the murmur of business conversation, the temptation will be the same. Reach for the phone. Infinite scroll. Slowly drift into idle distraction. But Scripture offers us an invitation to pursue a better rest. When we do, the trap of mindlessness is avoided and the blessings of gospel mindfulness are embraced.

1. Thayer’s Greek - English Lexicon of the New Testament.