We live in a world where leisure is hard to come by. Many people work a 9-5 job only to return home to a side hustle. Rest is a funny word that many are unfamiliar with, I even have a hard time identifying with the action. I tend to misinterpret my time of rest and my time to work towards my goals. If we all forget to rest how do we find time to rejuvenate, to reset, and to reflect? What does rest even look like? I know it looks different for everyone and I know it is also very necessary and something we should not be ignoring.
I was talking to one of my girls this past week and she was explaining how hard it is for her to rest, and as a believer (Christian) she believes her lack of rest is from her lack of trust in God. I thought this was interesting. The idea that the reason some of us may be having a hard time resting is because we feel like we have to work towards something, even the promises of God. Woah that’s a lot, let’s take a deep breath real quickly and meditate on that.
I spent this past Saturday laying in my bed watching Claws. Please understand what I am saying, I spent the entire Saturday watching a TV show. This is not something I normally do with my time, I am normally busy running around doing something. With the world still in the midst of a pandemic and numbers increasing once again, I AIN’T GOT NOWHERE TO GO! I realized waking up on Sunday morning that I was so exhausted. I did not do anything Saturday, I literally laid in bed and “rested”. Rest is so foreign to me I didn’t even see her annoying cousin idleness coming to the party, who invited her anyway?
For those who may not know because I definitely didn’t, rest and being idle are not one in the same. Rest is to relax, refresh, and to recover and idleness is laziness. So how can we tell them apart and how do we strive towards resting? Well I actually don’t know but I do know this one thing, the essence of resting is returning to a state of being. The advice I can give you, which is something I am also seeking, what is the state of being I need to get back to? What does that look like, feel like, and how will I know when I have returned to this state. Take it from me, don’t waste time of rest with idleness, take advantage of that time when it comes.
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