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This guest post is part of a series on Sabbath Rest for Small Church Ministry LLC, where we help women create joy & success in Small Church Ministry. Any opinions expressed within this blog post are those of the author and not necessarily held by Small Church Ministry.

A personal testimony from a young worship leader in England: how a global pandemic brought a forced rest and a fresh encounter with a God who cares.

A word about Sophia: From the time Sophia Calmiano joined our Creative Solutions for Small Churches Facebook community, she had my heart. Being young in ministry with a heart of gold, a quiet humility, and a depth of faith is rare, refreshing, and remarkably God-ordained. Thank you, Sophia, for sharing so much truth here and for taking the risk to write and share your heart. God has His hand on you, and you will influence more lives than you will ever acknowledge. I’m honored to know you.

Rest: Because God Cares For You

Rest is an interesting thing. I can tell you several Bible verses that talk about it. I can give you the definition of rest. But ask me how I do it, and I’ll shrink back and hope you forget the question! 

I simply find it a hard thing to do.

I mainly run our worship team, but I also help with our kids’ group on a Monday evening. Add a Bible study, a worship practice, and a full-time job in a primary school to the mix, and that makes for a busy week! 

Headed For Burnout

I know that spending time with God and resting with Him is important, but I struggled to set time aside. This, naturally, had a knock-on effect to my ministry as I was tired, short with the people around me, and headed for burnout.

I struggled to pray as I felt guilty that I wasn’t giving my best to God and being honest with Him about how I felt and where I was at. It would be a quick “please God see me through the day” and hope I’d make it. 

I found it so easy to give members of my team a break and encourage them to stop when I could see they were stressed. But if someone turned and told me the same thing? I would utter my three favorite words “I am fine” –– my theory that if I said them enough, I’d believe them. 

When Covid-19 affected the UK, our Sunday services went online, as did our Bible study, and all other ministries stopped. I was still playing worship on a Sunday morning and had moved to a shift-based rota for work, but life pretty much came to a standstill.

This was the first time in at least a year that all planned events became nonexistent, and honestly, I didn’t know what to do with myself! 

God, I’m not okay.

Stopping wasn’t an easy place to be.

I was restless and uneasy for longer than I care to admit. It started to shift when I started to listen to worship just because I loved it (which I always have). I found myself wanting to speak to God.

One morning during my prayer time I simply said, “God, I’m not okay. I really need you.” At that moment something just broke in me, I just unraveled and told God everything I had been feeling.

And God spoke back.

The best part of this? God spoke back.  

He revealed this scripture to me: Psalms 55:22.

Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you.

God was showing me how much He missed talking to me and that He wanted me to be vulnerable and honest with Him in everything. God knows our hearts. He knew in those moments how I was feeling, but He wanted me to say it, lay down the burden, and sit at His feet –– so He could, and can, love on me. 

God misses you too.

I believe God wants to hear from you. He wants to remind you that you are His and He cares about you. He misses your voice and loves being with you.

I believe the Lord wants to remind us to cast all our cares on Him because He loves us, and He is for us. It’s okay to feel at the end of your rope, but remember, you have a perfect Father who wants to love on you more than you’ll ever know.

So, stop for a moment.

Just lean back and breathe. 

Read More

Think You’re Too Busy For Sabbath Rest? Think Again

The Sweetness Of God’s Sabbath Rest

A woman with short curly black hair smiling at the camera. She is wearing a light-colored top with butterfly patterns and a silver necklace with a cross pendant. The background is bright with natural light coming from a window behind her.

Hi, I’m Sophia! I’m 25 years old, based in Brighton, England. I work in a primary school helping kids with additional needs as well as leading worship at the church I’ve grown up in. While I love scripture, God speaks to me through songs, so you’ll usually find me either listening to music or playing it!