Skip to main content

Rest now


Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. (John Lubbock)

Lubbock also reminds us that a day of worry is worse than a week of work! We spend a great deal of time 'working on things', only to rework them a little later. We clean today, but by next week this time, the cleaning must be repeated. Why? Life happened and dirt came. As with our living environment, life happens and dirt comes into our lives in the areas of our emotions, thoughts, and even our relationships. We must constantly be aware that life will 'happen', but when we have prepared for it, we are able to face the challenge of the 'dirt' as it arises. I have extra cleaning products in the house - not just enough to keep it clean today. One way we are always ready to deal with 'life's dirt' as it comes is to be 'rested', for a tired mind, body, and spirit will succumb to the stresses of a 'dirty life'.

I stretch myself out. I sleep. Then I’m up again—rested, tall and steady, Fearless before the enemy mobs Coming at me from all sides. (Psalm 3:5-6)

Rest doesn't always indicate idleness, though. When I am resting, my mind is still working - as it does, I have given God permission to enter into that 'working' and give me insight, new ideas, and even sort out a bit of the muddle that exists in my inner man at times. Rest means we 'settle in' for a bit and actually take time to just breathe. Worry has no place in our rest time, but how many of us 'worry away' our rest? We ruminate on all the things not done, things done poorly, and the things we didn't need to do, but did. Then we wonder why our 'rest time' seemed a bit foggy and not all that restful. We didn't really rest - we just faked being in a 'restful posture'. When I go fishing, I rest. I observe nature around me, read a bit, listen to others around me, and share a bit of excitement at that first fish reeled in by whoever it is that brings it in. Rest isn't about the location as much as it is about the frame of mind and spirit we place ourselves in as we are resting.

Rest doesn't always involve a bed - it can be a great afternoon just hanging out with your BFF. It could be taking on a challenging crossword puzzle, or even reading a book. There might be food with family and ruckus laughter abounding. Rest isn't hard, but getting ourselves to the place mentally, physically, and emotionally where we can really enter into rest might be. I actually had to train myself to rest - something that seems to come much more naturally to others. I had to give myself permission to lay down all that caused me so much anxiety in life. I had to open myself up to the possibilities of missing out the good stuff in order to pursue the urgent stuff. Life will happen - dirt will come - we don't have to always be so focused on what happened and what came as much as we need to be concerned with what God wants us to realize in the moment. 

Rest is a state - not a location. It is a sense - not a fact. It is personal - but it also may be corporate at times. We all need it. We all crave it. The next time you see a group of clouds in the distance - stop - take ten short minutes to just watch them. Do that thing we did as kids and think about what each one resembles. It may seem frivolous at first, but it could just spur some sense of deeper rest you desperately require. If so, find time to explore that 'sense' of need and get that desperately needed rest for your spirit, mind, emotions, or relationship that beckons to be found. The enemy to rest is worry - the solution to the 'dirty problem' you worry so much about might just be found in the rest. Just sayin!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant.  In that day and time, a very taboo thing.  We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God.  Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated.  We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar.  The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish.  Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,