In the beginning God created everything. In 6 days he created all that is. On the 7th day he created an example. He rested. Do you rest? I have a hard time resting much less putting my brain in neutral. Yet, we are to emulate God in our lives while here on planet earth. Might as well do it on Maui, on the beach, in the sunlight, with a good friend or two. If we are going to do the "rest" thing, we should also do it with all of our heart. That means putting everything aside so that we can rest. Again, this is hard to do. We can exercise rest if we have our priorities right and consciously make that decision. Just yesterday I went out of the house for 4 hours and didn't take my phone with me! Can you believe not being connected with the world for 4 hours?! It was great! Not that I didn't think about the phone, messages and calls, I did. Yet, I had made the conscious decision to not take the phone with me. To be truthful, though, it had a lot to do with a dead battery and needing to be charged. So, I didn't intentionally choose to have a time of rest from my phone. Our phones have taken over most of our lives. We don't need to remember addresses, names or phone numbers because they are in our phones. We don't need to remember or write down directions because our phones are our GPS. We don't even have to worry about mistakes in writing texts with auto correct. Okay, that is one we can worry about!
Resting isn't about doing nothing. Resting isn't about thinking only happy thoughts. Resting is about refreshing, reloading and relating. We need to be refreshed. We need to be reloaded and we need to relate to God and others. Resting is about preparation, about movement and about listening to that still small voice telling us where to turn next. I don't do well with resting. I was raised on a farm in the Midwest where we worked 6 days and sometimes 7 days a week from sun up to sun set. Rest was going to school! Rest came when it rained. Rest was meant to be sleeping. Rest was not refreshing, reloading or relating. I've carried that misunderstanding through most of my life. Having to "be busy" "finding something to do" and not having an "idle moment" have punctuated my life and relationships. That was affected in my relationship with Christ as well. Realizing that this wasn't healthy took many different forms. Contemplating losses because of the lack of rest. Understanding the missed opportunities due to a lack of rest. Having a heart attack because "rest" was a foreign concept that only others had the luxury of taking or having. Now I rest.
Compelling myself to rest still takes a lot of focus. Even though I know it's good for me, I don't always do what is good for me. It's very difficult to break old habits and install new habits which should instill a good ethic in my life. One way to compel ourselves to rest is to weigh out the negatives. That's not what God wants or commands in the Bible. Another way is to reflect on what else could be done. God doesn't condone that one either. So what does God want in our rest? He wants to be in our rest. That's it. Nothing more and nothing less. Not focused on the past or on the future. Not hoping for this or being distracted by that. Certainly not substituting one busyness for another. For example, sitting down and then turning on the TV. Taking the afternoon to tinker in the shop or to mow the lawn. There is no substitution for sitting in the presence of God. There is nothing more rewarding than to feel the love of God when we are quiet enough and still enough to do so. Whether you and I like it or not, we are created to rest. Simply enjoying the presence of God.
Yesterday I was outside in the "back 40" putting plastic over my newly built greenhouse. My dogs were there with me to make sure that I didn't injure myself. They do a better job than Lassie! At one point the drizzle stopped, the sun came out and it was heavenly. I stopped (rested) and let the awesomeness of God's creation bath over me. My dogs, faithful resters themselves, laid down in the grass and went to sleep. The sunshine was so refreshing, reloading and allowed me to relate anew with the graciousness of God. There, for the moment, was no past and no future. There was now. There were no distractions. The moment was just with God. The rest felt good and 10 minutes later I went back to work. You see, rest doesn't have to be Sunday, the weekend, nights off, or even vacation. Rest takes place when we sit with God and let him have that time. No interruptions. When the time of "rest" has done what it's supposed to have done; it's time to get back to work. Rest and work compliment each other and should never be seen as the evil of the other. We have the tendency to put everything into a dreaded Monday and loved Friday framework. We have the workweek and then the weekend. With God we have so much more.
So, here I am. Wish I was in Maui but even more want to be resting in God.
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