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Welcome to the Soma SoulWorks Podcast! This podcast serves to help people, particularly those who may label themselves as "creatives," to seek wholeness and calling so they are ready to embrace the mission God has for them. Consider this podcast a rogue harmony of professional development and self-care, hosted by John Bergquist and Chris Skaggs.

What’s covered in this episode: 

• In part three of the series, Brandon, Mark, Neil, and Chris reflect on “An Achievement Guide For Redemptive Game Developers” and its list of seven sins and the virtues that counteract them. This episode covers “pace over pressure”.
  • “Resist and reject the culture of crunch on principle. Instead of endless, unquestioned productivity, we practice the rhythm of work and rest and regular filtering for value over volume.We dig into our need to grow in all the dimensions of our being human, heart soul mind and strength. And we commit to take one full day every week for rest from our daily work and make sabbath possible for everyone within our sphere of authority.”
• “In every industry these days, the crunch is a cultural mindset.” Mark says. If you’re not working, there’s an underlying feeling that it’s time wasted. 
• There’s this concept that if you aren’t working toward something, then you aren’t valued, which is actually not what God says. We’re loved and valued by God by just being.
• Work can be its own form of escapism; real life is too hard. We avoid rest to avoid thinking and feeling what needs to be thought and felt. 
• Learning to rest isn’t always easy. “Even though I was physically still, there was still a mindset that needed to be quieted. And it’s taken practice…” Mark explains that he had to go to the Father asking for his spirit to be calmed.
• Sabbath is one of the ten commandments, and rest is intrinsically important to our beings. 
• “Rest” from work can just as much mean “play”. Use your rest time to do the life-giving things you can’t do on a work day. That might be quiet time, or it might be going for a hike. 
• Neil reminds us that rest time isn’t purely to recover, it’s to enjoy the fruits of your labor. God didn’t need to rest after his six days of creation, but he took the seventh day to enjoy what he had made. You need that moment.

Resources mentioned:

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