In America--and I think not only in America--we have a culture of non-stop busyness. We have had for my entire adult life. You know what that is?
Pride. Fear. Meaninglessness.
It's an attempt to bolster our self-esteem, in the eyes of ourselves and others, by implying how important we are. It's an attempt to avoid connecting with others and thereby devalues relationships. It's an attempt to bury pain, or grasp for purpose. It's buying into the lie that we are indispensable.
It's removing our lives from under the care of Jesus, whose yoke is easy and burden is light, who is the only source of both self-esteem and meaning, who wants us to make time for others, and who will heal our pain if we will let Him in.
We decided rest is for the lucky, or the monied (or the lazy), and skimping on sleep is a badge of honor (unless you're a child under 12, in which case we want you to go to bed already).
But the Bible says God grants sleep to those He loves (Psalm 127:2). In fact, the whole verse reads like this: "In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat, for He grants sleep to those He loves" (NIV).
Rest goes beyond sleep, quiet downtime in a peaceful atmosphere, or hobbies and pursuits that provide a change of pace or engage neglected parts of us--though these are all important to our health. God did the work of creation over a six-day period, and on the seventh day He rested. Was God tired? Certainly not! Yet He rested anyway; please let that sink in. How much more do we little dust-creatures, who do get tired, need to rest! What God was exemplifying in that seven-day period was the building of rest into the rhythms of life. I like to think of God's rest as less similar to a nap and more similar to the function of rests in music. The music doesn't rest because it gets tired. It rests for effect, for rhythm. Or think of a court of law, where the prosecution presents and then rests its case. Rest here means completion. Where, in our lives, is our completion? Is it because we're never done that we don't rest? Even the Father, and Jesus, had times when "it was finished."
Thinking about this, I realized that rest and fear are opposites. Someone said--I wish it was me, but it wasn't--"Fear is faith in the wrong kingdom." We could certainly argue that it's faith and fear that are opposites (though as the quote reveals, also weirdly the same), or love and fear that are opposites, since perfect love casts out fear. But I think it's also true that rest and fear (along with fear's younger sibling, worry) are opposites in that they have an awfully hard time coexisting.
So God rested for a day, right? One-seventh, or 14.28% of the time? Okay, but let's consider this: our bodies need about eight hours of sleep per night. If we are resting one whole day, plus eight hours during each of the other six days of the week, we are resting 24 + 48 hours out of the week, for 72 out of 168 total hours, or 42.85% of the week. Call it 43%. I'm not suggesting we make a project of figuring out whether we are sleeping, worshiping, playing, watching our favorite show, reading, exercising, kicking back with family or friends, or plain ol' staring into space for 43% of the week. But I am suggesting that given this generous a potential rest portion, a lot more of us could come a lot closer.
Closer to "let go and let God" a little more often. Deeper into trust in Him. More balanced in our view of how important we and our whirling dervish actually are. Setting our minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Rest, child of God, lay the busyness at Jesus' feet, and reach for your heavenly Father.
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