Be a bear, not a toad

I have a nephew who loves watching NatGeoWild channel. He grew up watching NatGeo and later expands to NatGeoWild, History Channel, and many more under channels 500 onwards from Astro Broadcast. It was my dad’s influence towards him since young because he loves the undersea. Since then, he will randomly pop a “did you know?” moments, and I'll get educated from undersea living creatures to land or sky creatures. This was what I've learnt from one of the “did you know?” moments and it got me remembering my recent down times.

Did you know, bears don’t hibernate and instead toad hibernate? Apparently it is true. Bears go into “torpor”. Their heart rates go down, they rest, they stop hunting, they sleep but they remain ready. As they have cubs, they need to be ready to protect them. While toads really do hibernate. Some can hibernate for three years. They allow their body temperature to drop so low that their blood can contain ice crystals.

You see the difference? While both need total rest to survive, the bear never forgets its responsibility. The toad is so rested, that to the untrained eye, it is dead! The toad can’t be relied upon to do anything, taking ages to become active.

Recently I have been really sick – worst two weeks in my life. I’m mostly in bed sleeping day and night, night and day. I didn’t have any strength to be awake. I fell so sick. I was in such great pain. There was nothing I could do except to sleep so I do not feel anything. Daily popping in 6 different type of medicines. I was down – really down. It was during these times; we need to be like bears. We need to rest, forgetting our work but remembering our task.

Forget your work.

During those two weeks, I took MC from work and church on Sundays. As much as I wanted to be in church, I simply couldn’t. The church’s Children’s Ministry leader gets sick too, you know?

A reminder to myself: Make it real rest. Don’t read books to prepare for the next to come. Don’t spend evenings planning the new year. Don’t offer to cover the gaps when someone else couldn’t make it. Do take time in your Bible and in prayer. Do remember why you trust and love Jesus Christ. Do take time to hang out with your friends and families (not when you’re sick), to sleep, to laugh and to simply really rest.

You see, taking rest and sleep is a way to show we trust God, particularly for the work of the Gospel. God will build his Church. We can sleep and rest because we know that God never sleeps or rests (Ref: Psalm 127:2). Through our “holidays” we don’t need to wake up early or stay up late working on Gospel ministry. In fact, such an attitude is vanity; self-centered. Be Christ-centered, take a rest. Leave Him to be the Messiah of our Children’s Ministry. He’s really good at it.

Remember our task.

Serving in the children’s ministry for fourteen years now, I learn to be a “parent” spiritually. Every child in the ministry are my children. And all thanks to my sister’s family, I grow to be “one” somehow also. I realized the most important role of a parent is to raise children as disciples of Jesus. This is possible because Jesus has been given all authority and He is with us always (Ref: Matthew 28:18-20), so though the task is huge, the burden and responsibility is light.

As we partner with parents in Children’s Ministry, this passage could very well be our best passage to shape our ministry. When I was down, I had to take a break from meeting my disciple. As we take a break from making disciples, don’t be confused about the task; it is not child care, it is not endless lesson preparation, nor is it impressing church families. It is making disciples. We are recharging our batteries so that we have the energy to carefully bring children to know Jesus Christ as their Lord.

So like a bear, while I can rest, while I can forget my work, I cannot forget my task. The children are too important. For their sake, I must remember my task. I remain ready. As I’m taking a break to rest, I am not forgetting responsibilities. I will return refreshed to make disciples. And I did (the photo above is my recent moment with my disciple – celebrating her birthday).

When you return after a break to your Children’s Ministry, return like a bear: be wide awake, well rested, ready, and enthusiastic, pleased to disciple children. Don’t return like a toad: half asleep, with ice in your veins, wishing you were still on “break”, longing to be left alone to sleep for another month.

And oh, another interesting fact that my dear nephew told me about bears. Apparently bears eat extra before their torpor, because while resting they rely on their fat reserves. As a result, they don’t need to feed off their muscles, so when they wake up, they are ready for action. And in case I’m being unclear, that’s an invitation to be ready for action, with bulging muscles, not to over eat!