We all have experienced crunch times in our lives. Moments when we are utterly focused on just one thing. It may have been the week before final exams at college or the weeks and months leading up to a transcontinental move. Some of us have prepared for major licensing exams or boards—or readied ourselves to submit and defend a doctoral dissertation. 

We all have experienced crunch times in our lives. Moments when we are utterly focused on just one thing. It may have been the week before final exams at college or the weeks and months leading up to a transcontinental move. Some of us have prepared for major licensing exams or boards—or readied ourselves to submit and defend a doctoral dissertation. 

Crunch time is focused time and doesn’t respond well to distractions. Crunch time is also endgame time. We can see the finish line. We sense that D-day is around the corner. We can usually count the days (or hours) before we reach the target date. 

Most of us are pretty good at entering a tunnel and focusing on just one (or two) things if need be. We cannot, however, always live in crunch-time mode— even though some of us have tried that and have learned the hard way that it’s destructive to our health and well-being. Crunch time is time in brackets that requires a special measure of divine grace and Spirit-filled endurance. I am very proud of my hardworking wife to have completed her dissertation—but I know that she (and I) wouldn’t be able to sustain a life that is permanently in crunch-time mode. 

God hasn’t made us like this. We need rhythm and reflection and renewal. Every Sabbath is one of those divinely designed breakers that interrupt our constant busyness and our misguided attempts to live permanently in crunch-time mode. Sabbath rest is God’s invitation to step outside the treadmill—even when we are busy doing God’s work. 

Adventist history is full of examples—mostly sad examples—of individuals who sought to live in crunch-time mode all the time, and who died too early. James White comes to mind, and many others whose names are less familiar. Ellen White’s balanced counsel may help us step out of crunch-time mode: “You can do the very best home missionary work by taking care of God’s temple, not defiling it by gross indulgence of human passions, not imperiling it by neglect, by undue wear and overwork. Do not presume to overtax this wonderful machinery, lest some part give way, and bring your work to a standstill.”^* 

I am grateful for God’s weekly reminder that we cannot live in crunch-time mode all the time. His resting on the seventh day at the climax of a perfect Creation points me to my need to rest in Him and surrender my most cherished goals and ambitions.

^* Ellen G. White, “Wholesome Advice to Young Students,” Missionary Worker, Mar. 25