Finding your rhythm

28 ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ (Matthew 11:28-30)

One of the curious things about going on holiday is how quickly our routines disappear. We eat at different times, go to bed later, forget what day it is and perhaps stop looking at the clock altogether. Then September arrives. Schools return, clubs and meetings begin again, and diaries suddenly start filling up. Before long, life feels as busy as ever.

There is nothing wrong with routines. In fact, they help us make sense of life. But there is a difference between being busy and living well. The question isn't simply whether we have found our routine again, but whether we have found the right rhythm.

As a new season begins, schools have fresh timetables, businesses set new priorities and leaders cast their vision for the months ahead. Most of us quietly do the same. We decide to be more organised, to exercise more regularly, to spend more time with family, or perhaps to stop saying "yes" to quite so many things. There is something refreshing about a fresh start.

One of the rare new year resolutions that worked out for me was to read the Bible in a year using an app on the phone. I am usually barely awake, and now it has become a habit – the start of the rhythm of my day.

But putting something new into the diary is not always the best thing. Experience tells us that a full diary is not always a fulfilled life. We can become experts at filling our days without stopping to ask whether we are filling them with the right things.

Jesus lived one of the busiest lives imaginable. Crowds constantly surrounded Him. People wanted His help from morning until night. Yet He never appeared rushed. He had time to notice the person everyone else ignored. He had time to pray. He made time to rest. He never hurried simply because everyone else was hurrying.

His secret was not better time management. It was that His life was shaped by His relationship with His Father. Before He served people, He spent time with God. Before making important decisions, He prayed. His rhythm was determined by obedience rather than pressure.

That is why His invitation is so appealing: "Come to me... and I will give you rest." Jesus was not promising a life without work or responsibility. After all, He speaks about taking His yoke upon us. A yoke is something that enables work to be done. But His yoke fits properly. It is the right way to carry life's responsibilities, with Him beside us rather than struggling alone.

Perhaps the greatest challenge for us is not that our lives are too busy, but that we often allow our busyness to set the pace. We rush from one commitment to another, hoping that life will somehow become calmer next week or next month. Usually it doesn't.

Instead, God invites us to begin each day with Him and allow Him to shape its rhythm. A few moments in prayer, a passage of Scripture, a quiet reminder that we belong to Him, these small habits gradually change not just our schedules but our hearts.

September often feels like a new beginning. Before we fill every spare space in our diary, perhaps we should first ask God to shape the pattern of our days. The busiest life is not necessarily the most fruitful life. The most fruitful life is one that walks with God.

The Apostle Paul gives us a wonderful picture of that life:

"Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25)

Life is at its best when we discover God's rhythm. As we learn to keep in step with the Holy Spirit, we find that the deepest peace is not found in having an empty diary, but in walking each day with the One who walks beside us.

Brian Leathers August 2026