School is beginning all around us and summer is moving rapidly toward autumn. As a child I looked forward to summer, whole days full of play with no schoolwork to do, longer days to be outside, watermelon, ice cream trucks. As an adult, however, my feelings about summer are more ambivalent. Longer days and less rain mean more yard and house projects, work doesn’t stop or even really slow down, and there is the addition of “summer activities” to the schedule. Oh, I like summer. I like the sunshine and the longer days and the clear nights and still, the watermelon. But summer no longer offers the break in pace that makes it a restful season of recovery.
I struggle with the idea of rest, maybe you do to, because it seems so…well, unproductive. Our culture, that is contemporary American culture, has formed us to value productivity and devalue things that inhibit maximum output. This is true even when we know that there is a law of diminishing returns, that by not resting we actually become less productive. The writer Steven Covey called it “sharpening the saw.” The other struggle I have, is that I often associate rest with sleep. Yet there is much more to rest than sleep. Relating deeply with a “safe” other is a form of rest. Slowing down from activity to be still (without filling the space with entertainment) is a form of rest. Appreciating beauty – in nature or art or music – is a form of rest.
I have been challenged more and more to see the connection between the two ideas of rest and restoration. We need to restore far more than our physical energy on a regular basis. We need to restore relational connections. We need to restore joy. We need to restore creativity. We need to restore our sense of wonder. And…we need to restore our awareness of our profound dependence on God. To be “weary and worn out” is not just bad for our bodies, its bad for our souls. Its not just bad for our physical life, its bad for our spiritual life. God meant it when He commanded rest. He knew what we needed; after all, He did design us. Jesus invited us to rest and modeled rest in His own life. How can we follow Him well, if we won’t practice this most basic principle?
Pursue Christ – He is enough,
Pastor Jeff