- Mean really took a day off.

Like unplugged your phone,

ignored your email, relaxed, regrouped?

Well, for Robert Morris,

it had been five long years,

and then he had a meltdown.

(whoosh)

- Robert Morris is thefounding senior pastor

of Gateway Church thathas over 39,000 members.

Working for five years without rest,

eventually caught up with him.

- Opened my sock drawer, no socks.

(laughter)

And I sat down in my closet

with just my underwear on and cried.

I went to lunch withPastor Tom Lane that day,

and I leaned across the table to him

and I said "Pastor Tom,I'm losing my mind."

(laughter)

He said "You're not losing your mind,

"you're exhausted."

- In his book, Take the Day Off,

Pastor Morris shares why rest

is central to your wellbeing.

And how by honoring the Sabbath day,

you can be more effective and creative.

- Please welcome back to the 700 Club,

Robert Morris, talking about his new book,

Take the Day Off.

Tell us a little bit aboutwhat happened that day

after five years.

Because people, whetherthey admit it or not,

we can relate.

- Yeah, well right before the socks

when there were no socks,

I opened my underwear drawer

and there was only one pair left.

But I remember standing there thinking

what am I gonna do tomorrow?

You know pastors should wear underwear.

Shouldn't talk about it on TV,

but they oughta wear it, you know?

So I just thought, what am I gonna do?

But I couldn't think.

- Process the whole ...- Yes.

So it's not just thatwe get tired physically,

we get tired spiritually, obviously,

and we're weak to theenemy and temptation,

but we get tired mentally and emotionally.

And when I taught this,

I remember, a doctorin our church thought,

"You know what, I haven'tbeen taken a day off really,"

and so on Sundays, hesaid "I'm gonna start

"taking the day off, notthink about my practice."

And all of a sudden he got this idea

when he was lying down togo to sleep that night,

and he thought "I gotta write this down."

And he thought "Well,wait, it's the Sabbath,"

but he looked and it was 12:01 am, Monday.

But here's the great thing.

He writes it down,

it is now revolutionizing the industry,

this one idea that he got,

because his mind was relaxed

and he could think and create again.

- You had quite a health crisis.

I mean, almost died.

Did that play into this as well

and to understanding "Man, I just need

"to slow down a little bit?"

- Yeah, well I was trying to slow down,

and you get convicted and you do it

and then you kind of letgo and then you do it.

- The world enters.

- Yeah, so we were at ourplace out in the country

slowing down, but I passed out.

And I told Debbie, "I feellike I'm losing blood."

And because I'd had a ulcer before,

but I wasn't passing blood.

But they came and theycouldn't get my blood pressure,

it was too low to read even,

they called the helicopter,

I got heli'd to the hospital,

I'd lost over 50% of my blood.

And I had two torn veins thatwere bleeding internally.

And so you can see how bad I looked,

and so they had to dotwo emergency surgeries.

But that really did reinforce

you've got to slow down and rest,

because it had slowlycreeped back into my life

working seven days a week.

- Why do we struggle so much with that?

You know, God obviously knew we needed it,

it's one of the big 10,

take a Sabbath rest.

It's for us, not for him or the Sabbath.

So why do we struggle with that?

- I think we struggle with it

because really of the fall of sin,

our sin nature, becausewe're performance oriented.

And we know we don't have to perform

for our salvation, we'vegot that, and it's by grace,

but I might have to perform for you,

I might have to try tocome and do a good job.

So I better think aboutit and get prepared

or for the message,

or for something I'm doingfor work, a presentation.

Instead of, if I take that day off,

I'll be rested and refreshed,

and actually do a better job at work.

It's a matter of trusting God

that he can do a better job in six days

than I can in seven.

- And sometimes I think, Robert,

we demand it of ourselves,

not even for anybody else.

We perform for us insteadof the audience of one

we're supposed to perform for.

- Yep, there's something in us

that we try to, even from our childhood,

we try to overcome and show people

no we are hard workers.

- So, what are the signs of burnout?

I mean you mentioned some ofthe things you experienced,

you know just this sense of"I can't do this anymore,"

not being able to think andprocess as you normally could.

What else should people --

- Well, one of thethings I didn't mention,

we have four tanks thatneed to be refilled

and refreshed every day.

And that's a spiritual tank,

a physical tank, a mental tank,

and an emotional tank.

So I talked a little bitabout physical and mental

and spiritual, but the emotional.

What about you don't haveenough emotions for your kids?

You don't have emotions for your spouse?

You're getting cranky, irritable.

Debbie will say "Man youneed to take a day off."

And she's right.

- So how do we begin that process?

It will seem very foreign to others.

I mentioned to you before we came

out of that commercial,

I did a study on theSabbath in the Old Testament

a few years ago, andGod's serious about that.

I mean serious repercussionsif we don't take a Sabbath.

But how do we begin?

- Yeah, well it's actually easy.

You schedule it.

If you think about it,

if you're gonna have lunch with someone,

you schedule it so you don't miss it.

If you're gonna go somewhere and speak,

you schedule it.

Whatever it is, we put it on our schedule.

So I called a Pastor years ago,

this is when God wastrying to teach me this,

we were trying to have lunch,

so I was saying "What about Monday?"

"No, I'm out of town."

"What about Tuesday?"

"I have meetings."

I said, "Well what do youhave scheduled Thursday?"

and he said "Nothing."

I said "Well great, let's go to lunch."

He said "No, I can'tgo to lunch Thursday."

I said "I thought you saidyou have nothing scheduled?"

He said, "That's right."

He said, "I have nothingscheduled for Thursday.

"I'm going to do nothing on Thursday."

And he said "I'd liketo talk to you about it

"when we get together."

And he told me he was sick,

in the hospital, theydidn't know what was wrong.

And God spoke to him about this,

and he repented and was healed,

and he from that timeon, he takes a day off.

- Can I ask you, technically,how you structure that?

Because when people are used to the

frenetic pace that we all keep

and then you take a dayoff, it's (tapping).

What do you do on your day off?

- Yeah, I get asked that all the time.

I teach pastors this, Iteach business leaders,

and they always ask me, "What do you do

"on your day off?"

And I say, "Actually,that's the wrong question."

It's not what do you do,

it's what do you not do?

So I don't do anything related to work.

What all of us have acalling on our lives.

And whatever that calling is,

that helps other people.

So, if we'll just on that day,

if I answer emails for work,

I don't do it one day a week.

Phone calls for work,

I don't do it one day a week.

Studying for messages, writing books,

whatever that is, Istop that one day a week

so that I'm refreshed to do that calling

God has on my life.

- Amen.

Listen, Robert's book is called

Take the Day Off, and it's available

wherever books are sold.

We all need it, it's the pretty blue book

with the hammock on the cover.

Doesn't that look inviting?

Get a hold of it,

because that day off is God's plan for

your health and well being.

Thank you, what a wonderful ...