The rhythm of life is the key. Most leaders are too busy, and the consequence of an overly busy lifestyle is greater distance from Jesus. In his final metaphor, Jesus gave his disciples the picture of the vine and the branches. He told them that their personal fruitfulness was dependant on abiding in him.

Generally, we believe our fruitfulness depends upon how hard we work, not on how close we are to the Lord. So we tend to focus on work rather than rest; on doing rather than being; on producing rather than abiding. Most leaders' spiritual lives would get a significant jump-start if they took a period of rest to simply focus on their relationship with Jesus.

Jesus said that when we abide in him, we abide in his love and his word abides in us. Once the process is jump-started, the most important thing is to maintain it with a simple rhythm: take regular rest days to reconnect with Jesus and establish a pattern of abiding, which will lead to fruitfulness.