We are in the middle of summer now. Hopefully you have found some time to relax and find some rest. The summer can be busy, but hopefully it has also been a time to rest and recharge a bit. Maybe even just eating a bit differently, some fresh stuff from a garden or market, driving with the windows down – anything that gives you a couple of minutes to enjoy and take a big breath.
Sometimes it can be hard to give ourselves permission to rest. The summer can be even more stressful with kids home, and perhaps this year there are more events to plan and things to do as it starts to feel more of a normal summer and we may feel we need to “catch up” from the last two summers. Sometimes we feel like we need a vacation after our vacation. We can feel that we don’t have time to rest, to relax.
There are many texts in the Bible in which Jesus is not healing, teaching, or counseling, but instead he is resting.
With so much on him, so much expected of him, so much at stake, and so little time, how was Jesus able to give himself permission to rest? How and why was Jesus able to rest so easily and frequently? I invite you to consider these possibilities for experiencing such rest as Jesus did:
– what if Jesus believed that turning it off was as important as turning it on, that you couldn’t really turn it on if you didn’t really turn it off?
– what if Jesus believed that there were dimensions of God, personhood, and life that could only be accessed through leisure and Sabbath?
– what if Jesus believed that rest did not detract from his creative labour, but rather preserved, replenished and ignited it?
So what if we thought about rest in this way too? I’m reminded of an old saying about meditation. “I meditate for 30 minutes every day, unless it is a very stressful and busy day … then I meditate for an hour.” Perhaps we need to give ourselves permission to rest, to take a break. What we need to remember is that taking a break does not always mean you have a two-hour nap in the middle of the day. Just taking two minutes to take a few breaths in between tasks at your desk or at home.
For myself taking a moment to rest, is as simple as closing my eyes focusing on my breath and saying a short prayer. It doesn’t have to be long, it doesn’t have to be big, but making sure that our bodies and minds have even little amounts of time in our days and weeks, where they can recharge helps us to be ready for those times when it is challenging, when we do have things that have to get done in a short amount of time.
Resting is not the enemy. Relaxing is not something we should be ashamed of or feel that we need to have an excuse before we do it. It is a tool that we have which we under-utilize in our daily lives. May you find time to rest in your life, so that your spirit may be full.
– Submitted by Mark Laird, DM Drayton United Church