“The sun was bright and warm. In contrast to the cold room, the sun brought a sense of warmth. As I walked out of the room and down the stairs, my wife carrying my nearly-ten-month old behind me, I faced the day with anticipation. Anticipation and hunger. We headed down the corridor towards the dining room. As we walked in we were greeted with a smile. “Two and a baby,” my wife says to woman. She walks us to our table, grabs a high chair and we sit down. An hour later I am on the beach, coffee from the local coffee house in hand, baby asleep next to me, staring at the ocean waves as they crash into the shore. This is rest. This is relaxation…and I can’t stand it!
The picturesque story above is one that actually occurred. This was not the first day on our vacation nor was it the second. But by the third and fourth days on our all-inclusive resort, I found myself growing restless. I found myself wanting the vacation to end so that I could return to normal life. I missed being busy. I missed the hustle of the daily grind. I missed my work. After some thought and reflection in the past few weeks since this occurred, I’ve found myself pondering why and even how I could possibly want a chance for relaxation and rest to end. Knowing my job and school have been increasingly stressful, how could I want to leave the one place that had given me distance from that stress? It wasn’t until I returned home that I knew my answer.
I do not like rest because I still find my identity in what I do rather than what God has already done for me.
Rest has been the topic of a multitude of books in the past couple of years. The ideas of Sabbatarianism have made a reemergence in our churches. Pastors have opened up about their experiences of burnout in their ministries. There is a deep longing for rest in our lives which is not merely physical but mental and spiritual as well. But we find ourselves on the performance treadmill. Life has become a series of events where we try to out-perform the next guy. We run from place to place filling our schedules, thinking that our value and worth is based on what we accomplished. We take pride in our busyness.”
The above paragraphs were written over half a decade ago. Summer of 2017. As I type these words, it is Thanksgiving Day 2023. I imagine ‘2017 Eric’ was really hoping that ‘almost 2024 Eric’ would be better at rest, but I think he would be very disappointed. It’s not that I haven’t made some progress, but I still find the above statement very true: I do not like rest because I find my identity more in what I do than what God has already made me to be. But, if I had to add to these ideas I would also add this:
We don’t rest because we don’t believe God can do more in our rest than we can do in our work.
It is not enough to say that we don’t find our rest because we disbelieve our identity. We also don’t rest because we disbelieve God’s identity. This is something I have come to understand more in the past few months more than ever. All too often I think that God cannot use my rest. Or rather, I think God is inactive in my rest. This cannot be further from the truth. God can do so much more in my rest than I can do in my work! The challenge is believing this is true.
As I’ve read a number of books on rest the last year, listened to podcasts, practiced Sabbath, engaged in silence and solitude, I’ve found a greater joy in rest. As it turns out, I often find myself less joyful when I fail to practice rest in my life. It is as if Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27). That if we truly believe God’s Word, we will practice what He commanded. Rest is actually not an option, it is a necessity. It is an act of faith to rest. And so, no, I still don’t rest like I should, but I’m making strides. And the hope is that if you are reading this and your tendency is not to rest, then I would strongly suggest to take time out of your packed schedule to do what God has not just commanded you to do, but has given to you as a gift for your own flourishing.
So, take the time to rest this day and many more days in the future. Because God will use your rest. More than you even know.