Rest Is More Than A Nap - Episode 6
I recorded this the evening of Wednesday, October 8th. If you are even a tiny bit observant you will know that this is the night before podcast release day! In a move that is the complete opposite of what this episode is about, I waited until the last minute to do some things and ended up getting farther behind the 8-ball of my schedule than I anticipated. Instead of rushing around trying to get the 2 episodes about friendship edited – and probably doing a poor job at best, I opted to simply take another week, and use this moment to speak about something we all need more of…Rest!
The act or idea of rest is mentioned in more than 72 verses throughout Scripture. Rest for the land, rest of work, the Holy rest of Sabbath, rest from war and military service as newlyweds, and so on. It wasn’t reserved for the elite of most Holy – Christ call his followers to rest and he himself retreated for rest often after he spoke and healed and ministered to those around him.
In Matthew 11 he says, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
I think we lose sight of just how important rest is. We can look at the call in the Old Testament for the land to be allowed to rest every 7 years. It needs to replenish its nutrients. When the land was not allowed to rest it became dry, dead and unable to sustain life. I would venture a guess that many farmers and gardeners would say that still holds true today. If it is so important for the dirt of the earth to rest, how much more so that God calls his children to rest. When we expend all we have, even for good causes, we become depleted, exhausted, and unable to sustain life.
From where I sit, we have allowed our insane go, go, go culture to shift seeing rest as a good thing, something that actually increases productivity and quality of life and work, to something that only the lazy partake in. Ever since the invention of the light bulb we have been striving to cram more and more work into a day that was never meant to be longer than sunup to sundown. And the effects of that are seen everywhere – in broken marriages and families, skyrocketing health issues, the ever-growing headlines of cheating and scandal in areas of money and leadership. Don’t get me wrong, rest, or lack thereof, is not the only factor driving this slide into burnout, but it certainly holds the compass.
Perhaps if we started to view rest from a different perspective, we might find that we choose to bring it back in to our lives as a non-negotiable. Inspired by words that Bonnie Gray (Whispers of Rest) wrote a few years back, what if we looked at rest in the following ways.
Rest is not lazy or fake. It is real and emotionally honest. In the verse I read out of Matthew we are not asked to get it all together and then come to him for rest. Nope, he tells the weary and the burdened to come to him. He provides safety to come to him and say, “Jesus I simply can’t do anymore.”
Rest shows us how we get back to our true identity. Not someone who constantly seeks to fill all of the roles, meet all of the expectations, please all of the people – but a child of God. Fully know, fully seen and fully loves – no matter what. The weight placed on us by our culture is not the weight God meant for us to carry, and striving like that is not who we were created to be. Rest allows him to speak that truth back into us – to be still and quiet before him so He can show us, once again, we are His. Brennan Manning says, “Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.”
Rest is being vulnerable relationally with The One who made you. In this culture of likes, shares, retweets and so on, we have lost sight of what it is to connect in true relational vulnerability with any human. Its too easy to hide behind our screens and keyboards. We so long to be seen and known…it is part of who we are as humans. God made us for community. Even God Himself had to come to us as a real person who said “Hello,” smiled, ate and cried to show us He loved us. Rest is an experience of being known. We need to get together with others to learn or relearn how to be vulnerable with each other – to rest and call each other to rest together.
Rest goes against our culture and is a radical concept. Soren Kierkegaard said, “If I were allowed to prescribe just one remedy for all the ills of the modern world, I would prescribe silence.” He said that because of the noise saturating the culture around the world, even more so now, even if the word of God came to us, we wouldn’t be able to hear him. We have to be away from the masses (as Jesus called his disciples to get away and escape the masses by boat, even when needs were still unmet), to “leave by boat” and take that radical break of rest and silence – so we can hear him.
Rest takes bold faith. It takes courage and big faith to admit we are exhausted and we need to assess boundaries and healthy rhythms in our life. We aren’t failing when we step into rest – we are actually moving into spiritual intimacy with God. And he loves the soul searching and the intimacy with us on that journey.
Rest is sleep – and sleep is not a gift given to us by running ourselves ragged – again, even for good causes. It also allows us to replenish and bring all of our senses renewal.
Rest requires grace for ourselves. We must allow ourselves to hear God’s prompts and be inspired by His voice and not give in for fear of guilt and disappointing ourselves and others.
Rest is different for each of us. For some it may be long hikes and physical exercise. For others it is rising early and simply beginning a day of silence with a cup of tea or coffee enjoyed slowly. For some it is cooking a beautiful meal to enjoy – with no time frames or deadlines for the arrival of guests, but to enjoy the pleasure of good food prepared without being rushed. For others it is never getting out of pajamas for the entire day and ordering food to be delivered. For some it is the same day, all day long, every week. For others it may be an hour or 2 at the same time every day. Whatever it is – set it. Stick to it and make it non-negotiable.
While I am speaking of rest there are a few amazing books I would like to recommend. The first is To Hell with the Hustle by Jefferson Bethke. I love the way he combines our cultural history with Scripture in the text to bring solid facts to light and show what we have sacrificed on the altar of speed, more hours and continual work. He lays out research and statistics that cannot be ignored. It is an easy read and a wonderful way to put the over-extension of our lives into perspective.
The second is The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. John Mark and Jefferson actually released their books close in the timeline and they also hosted a podcast together on the subject of this culture of hurry we live in. John Mark brings some very practical ways of entering into a slower rhythm of living every day – not just a day of rest here and there. Holy Sabbath is what he refers to – it is rich and thought provoking.
The last, and my most favorite book for the past year is Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton. I have so many feelings about this book. From Rest to Retreat: Silence to Solitude this book brings deep and meaningful ways to enter into intimate conversation with God. This book has drawn me deeper and deeper into God’s Word and has allowed God to make my faith deeper than I could have imagined. It has made me less afraid of saying ‘no’ to unhealthy habits and eagerly looking to say ‘yes’ to truly sacred rhythms for my life.
A few accounts I follow on Instagram that speak into rhythms of rest are @everymomentholy and @sacredordinarydays
This was not the episode I planned on releasing today – but it is the one I think was best today…because I am trusting that God knows what needs to be heard more than I do! I hope that you were blessed by something that you heard and that you will find ways to bring real, renewing rest into your life rhythms soon!
Thank you again for listening. If you liked what you heard (or just read), share with your friends, sign up for the newsletter (below) and follow me on Instagram and Facebook (both accounts are @thecreativetablepodcast - I have some fun giveaways coming soon!).
Until next time, go find a creative way to make someone smile.
Photo by Jonathan Fink on Unsplash
