REST… What is you?
4 minute read
I was considered a hold-out to jumping on the Facebook wagon when it came on the scene our Sophomore year of college. When I finally acquiesced, in true Mary Clay fashion, I’d secretly been mulling over what my profile would say if I ever did jump aboard for over a year.
In addition to claiming interests of “being first in line at stoplights and the black market”, I knew I wanted to include this quote from the band .38 Special:
“Hold on loosely,
but don’t let go,
if you cling too tightly,
you’re gonna lose control.”
That quote stayed up for approximately 24 hours until a guy friend told me, “That is the douchiest quote I’ve ever heard.”
K. Cool. Delete.
HOWEVERRR, without realizing it then, the metaphor applies to how I do life to this day. I struggle to hold on loosely to anything - especiallyyy when it comes to work.
I plow through tasks, I plow through the day, I tick-tick-tick off my to-do list as mentioned in last week’s post until I burn-out completely. Then I “rest” by being an immovable bump on a couch because I’m so exhausted.
I’ve had professional after professional advise me to reduce stress, and I nod in agreement each time, too proud to ask, “HOW?! I have a family, a business, laundry piles, a dog who sheds hair as a hobby, and a social schedule to uphold.”
Maybe you can relate?
After praying for wisdom for how to a) reduce stress and b) figure out how the heck to hold on loosely… I keep hearing the words slow down and rest.
K. Cool. Delete... JK.
But, really, how in the world do I do these two things?
In Jeremiah 50:7, the NLT version says “All who found them devoured them. Their enemies said, ‘We did nothing wrong in attacking them, for they sinned against the LORD, their true place of rest, and the hope of their ancestors.’”
Rather than their true place of rest, the NIV version calls God their verdant pasture. For all my fellow crossword puzzle junkies, verdant means “(of countryside) green with grass or other rich vegetation.”
In our neighborhood there is a house with verdant grass that just looks so inviting you cannot help but notice. Never one to look, not touch, my son calls it “the comfy grass”, and he asks if he can lie in the comfy grass nearly every time we pass the house. While yes, we are the confused weirdos lying in grass that does not belong to us, the owners are lovely and say their grandchildren do the same thing.
So envision this comfy grass: It’s not itchy. It’s lush. It’s got a nice give when you lie on it, and it’s incredibly inviting and soothing.
This verdant grass is our loving Father. He’s not itchy, He’s lush, He’s got give, and He’s incredibly inviting and soothing.
So why do I run from resting in He who IS REST?
I’ll tell you why by again piggybacking off of last week’s devotional: Because I am a busybody who finds her worth in productivity.
And, and, and... I’ve been quite confused on what Biblical rest really means. Yes, I understand keeping the Sabbath (typically Sunday) Holy and as a day of rest, but my literal brain struggles to see rest as anything beyond sleep and naps.
Man I love naps. I’m a v sleepy person who needs at least 8 hours. 9. Sometimes 10. I think this could be because I go full dang speed all day as mentioned above, and I’ve been thinking about this lately...
MAYBE if I started to incorporate Sabbath rest into my work days vs. just on Sundays, I might not need the sleep hours of a newborn.
In this article by Tim Keller which I highly recommend - he mentions the law of gleaning. I originally learned about this term when we studied Ruth, and it essentially means leaving a portion of the fields unharvested so the poor can come and glean what they need. TK equates this to pumping the breaks on the to-do list and leaving some things undone.
GASP.
While this feels icky, it also sounds pretty freeing. The illusion of a complete to-do list gets me everytime, so why not just tell it to shove it? I could be totally wrong about this, but I’ve been led to view this behavior as a sort of tithe on my time and energy. If I can give Him this portion, I’m trusting Him to be my provider of time, energy, and brain-power just like we trust Him to provide for us financially by tithing.
With the law of gleaning in mind, what does it look like to incorporate Sabbath rest into our work days by sacrificing our to-do list?
I think it means praying through how to make Him the focus of our day, not our to-do. This week, I did this by sitting outside to eat my lunch without my phone. I typically eat at my desk, so this was a way to sacrifice the productivity to enjoy two great gifts from a good Father - a sunny Spring day and a yummy salad. While sitting out there, I got some re-energizing Vitamin D, our dog Heidi sunbathed right next to me, and I kid you not, a yellow butterfly came to say hello.
This is such a small example, but I hope it shows how easy it actually is to open up super-sweet and personal ways to be blessed and re-energized… all by holding on loosely to our to-do list. (Excuse me while I fist-pump, WOO, YES I BROUGHT IT BACK INTO THE CONTENT. K I’m done.)
The verse that keeps jumping to mind here is Psalm 16:11 “You will make known to me the path of my life, in your presence is fullness of joy.” Aside from being incredibly dear to my heart because my Gigi taught it to me, this scripture is quite applicable to living a life of JOY not muscling through our days.
If I’m trusting Him to make known to me the path of my life, I can certainly trust Him to make known to me the path of my day.
More to this point, in our sermon last week, our pastor spoke on Hebrews 4 and how, in the light of the new covenant (this means life with Christ as the sin-sacrifice for all believers), the Sabbath is now to remember the redemptive work of Christ vs. the Old Testament view of the Sabbath as a day of rest to remember God’s Creation work.
This now means every day is holy and filled with opportunity to honor God through rest - am I living like it?
Yoosh, I dunno about that. In this deep dive on rest though, I’ve learned it is a discipline. Just like doing your work is a discipline, for those who tend to find their worth in productivity like your girl, resting might be an even harder muscle to train.
By engaging in rest, we both honor God and learn to enjoy Him more. It shifts the focus toward noticing vs. being noticed. Because really, when we get down to it, a lot of the times we’re hyper-focused on accomplishing something is to be noticed. At least I am! Yuck.
Wrapping it up with the reminder that God is rest because of what Christ did for us on the cross. Because of this gift, rest is enjoying God, noticing God, and trusting God in our day to day life by experiencing life through His eyes.
Y’all God is cool. He’s fun. He’s super duper personal and smart. Those things that help you shift focus off of self and onto Him are typically the things that light you up inside! And guess what? THAT is rest! For me, it’s being in nature, going on walks, taking an epsom salt bath while doing a crossword puzzle, being somewhere without my phone. I challenge you to find ways to incorporate rest into your day this week. Every. Day! He created you on purpose for a purpose, and He longs to bless you. Let Him!
Closing with this mic drop from the Tim Keller article, “When we find salvation through Christ and grace, we rest from the most debilitating work of all — the work of establishing our own worth through our efforts, the work of earning our own salvation.”
And boom goes the dynamite.
Father, you are so worthy of our rest! You ARE rest! You are our verdant pasture, worthy of our time and energy and resources. Thank you for the gift of your Son Jesus for delivering us from the efforts of earning our own salvation! We know even the greatest days on earth are but a flicker of what’s to come to being in Paradise with you! Help us honor you by enjoying life through your eyes God. Give the person reading this a personal way of resting in you this week please Father. We don’t deserve your goodness, yet you give it freely! Thank you! In Jesus's name I pray, Amen.
Suggested Scripture:
Sunday/Monday: Jeremiah 50:4-7
Tuesday: Psalm 16
Wednesday: Ruth 2
Thursday: Hebrews 4:1-11
Friday: Romans 8:28
Saturday: Jeremiah 29:11