Resting
By Amy Hosp 6-25-19
There’ so much to get done is always a statement that I make
as so many of us do. Our goal is to get things done so that we can rest. In the
so much to do area there is always so many things to work through to get things
done. For me as of the time of writing this, the pain that I have in my side
right now from who knows what, but it’s been there for a long time, is a
reminder that there is always going to be something that I have to work through
or around or because of. I wish for just a few seconds, not even minutes, but a
few seconds that I could have a pain free body and an unattached brain that is not
forever connected with my body. I know that would mean some kind of head injury
or a break with reality somehow, not that I would complain, but things are what
they are so I’m a bit stuck where I am so my best choice is to do the next
right thing. Most of the time I am truly guessing at what that is. I find it
eventually and even it’s an action of getting something done, or an action of
resting, I do it. Oh, it might take me a while to get to it, but I do it. The thought of resting as an action, is
intriguing to me. Most people call resting being lazy. What’s wrong with
resting. The Bible says that a man that doesn’t work doesn’t eat, but resting
doesn’t mean not working, it means resting from work in the working sense of
things. God rested on the 7th day, not only because He was setting
an example for us to rest, but He wanted to look at all He had created. He called
everything He created good when He made it, but He took a day to rest, reflect
and look over what He had made. God doesn’t need to encourage Himself, but He
does get Glory for all He has done and is doing and will do. As a matter of
fact, He tells us in Romans that His creation is such that it points people to
Him. It says in Romans that no man has an excuse of knowing that there is a
God. Creation, in my opinion, is such that one cannot look around themselves
without wondering how things were made or came to be and that’s because of its
beauty. This brings me back to resting by the way. If you stay in the concrete jungle where
everything is manmade and full of the life of business, then you aren’t going
to stop and wonder how things were made. It’s more likely that you will take
things for granted, maybe all of it for granted. Granted taking leads us down a dark path of self-indulgence,
isolation, and gluttony, either the traditional form of the word or in a newer
way of it, given ourselves what we see and want rather than what we need.
Granted taking’s dark path also finds a place for our withdrawal from God
because in that business we often are too busy to attend a church, much less be
a member of a church. Even being a member of a church can draw us away from God
because church membership can cause a whole other level of busyness to life.
It’s a good thing to serve God and work for Him, but without rest, that service
is really a waste of our time. I say our time because in busy service we still
can and do touch and positively impact other’s lives. It’s not in vain to be a
busy anything, a mom, a dad, or a soccer coach, a schoolteacher, a Sunday
school teacher, a youth worker, a city volunteer, and all the other things a
community needs to make it a community, it’s in your personal life that resting
keeps us from suffering.
When do we as believers in Christ take time to rest and
reflect on our lives? If you already have a time that you do this, and I’m not
talking about the trash talk that we often are so good at about ourselves, I’m
talking about reflecting on what is good, what we need more or less of, what we
have that is working and is not working, what we have loved or are loving and
what we don’t love and need to get away from, then you are on a good path and
one that has far more light than the granted taking path has. What if God never
took that time to rest and reflect on what He had done? Would He have been too
busy like we are and forget things He wanted and needed to do? Would He had
taken on a role where He began to trash talk to Himself about what was left
undone, or what He could have done better if only He were not too busy to focus
on what was at hand to be done? If that was true, not only do I think the earth
would have imploded a long time ago, but if it did last as long as until now, I
think it would be a non-safe, dangerous, lousy place to live. I know my life
turns out that way, a lousy place to live because I have not taken the time to
check in on me. Whatever checking that is that needs to be checked on doesn’t
get done because I don’t take the time to rest and reflect. I know most of us
have at least one day, or a half of a day that we can spend doing next to
nothing but binge watch TV and while that type of resting is ok, it doesn’t
give us the reflecting part of resting.
Resting and reflecting go hand in hand if you are truly
resting. Not trying to get caught up on your sleep, although a nap may be
needed to get to the reflecting part, but it’s the kind of resting that isn’t
always sitting down and doing nothing. Resting that involves reflecting is
giving yourself permission to be just you. Being just you is not doing things
only you can do for others, or because no one else can do as well as you, it’s
being who you believe deep down inside of yourself who you believe you were
created to be. Many of us are afraid of that place inside of us and many more
of us have no clue what this even means or where to begin to find that person.
I had a tough time with that at one point and to be completely honest sometimes
I have to really search to remember who that person is inside of me. This being
just you stuff is easy but at the same time it takes a while to get to the easy
part of it. Just being you! Doesn’t it sound alluring and exciting and beautiful?
Doesn’t it also sound like a lot of work and remembering and reflecting,
sometimes on things that are painful and difficult and just annoying? I agree
with all of that and much more, but I have learned that the more I am just
being me the easier it becomes and the more and more I like it and how good it
feels to look back at my progress of doing such a potentially arduous task. I
see shocking things about myself along the way, both shocking things that I had
no idea was needing work, such as an attitude or judgment, but shocking things
like how much fun it can be to crawl through a bobbed wire fence, even getting
poked by the bobbed wire or getting my clothes hung on the fence, to be able to
reach a beautiful site that before I would have not even bothered to find. I’m
also shocked at times what I risk on this journey of just being me, like
trespassing or going against the “norm” of society or eating that stinky nasty
fish or veggie that made me gag when I was a kid. If I just rest on the couch
for the sake of sitting down and not using energy, I may reflect some, but it’s
usually not even in a useful way. It’s when I do something active that resting
becomes reflective for me. I’m disabled so being active at times for me is very
difficult and during those times all I can do is sit on the couch and rest I
try to do so with a favorite book, or with my journal in front of me. I don’t
even always have the ability to write in a journal or draw or paint of whatever
one can do creatively just sitting down so on those days I use my art or
journals and look at them and read and take time to see where I’ve been and
think about where I’m headed or hope to be headed and how or what I need to do
to get to that place. For me, doing something that I enjoy with just me, no one
else, opens me up to me. To the me inside that was created by God to do certain
things. Resting and reflecting teaches me and reminds me of why I am here on earth,
and it gives me a sense of direction and purpose and hope and a vision. With
all of the things resting affords me I find that getting busy doing those
things is resting to me because I’m no longer striving to find me, or to
satisfy myself or others. Resting by being busy doing and being what God
created me to be takes tons of pressure off of me. I can relax and enjoy what
I’m doing and once I’ve done those things and accomplished things lost to myself,
I just keep resting. Resting brings more resting and also reflecting.
This resting thing is a Biblical principle by the way. The
Bible tells us to rest in the arms of God, to lean on Him for our
understanding, to sit under His wings for safety, to renew ourselves in His
Word, to fellowship with Him, to rest one day a week so we can focus on Him.
All of those things puts us in an avenue where God can reach us without having
to get our attention or stop us in our tracks to speak to us. Resting keeps us
in touch with God on a daily basis it is in that relationship we find our
reflection. The Bible tells us that the closer we are with God, meaning the
more that we depend on Him the more clearly, we can see ourselves. At first
when we look through the glass at ourselves it is a dark reflection that we see
but the more we rest in God the more clearly that reflection of ourselves
becomes. I’m not talking pie in the sky, poof, all your problems are gone kinda
stuff here. Pie in the sky is a great example of that. Wouldn’t having pie in
the sky be great? Just think about it for a second, pie in the sky, it would
not only smell delicious and be satisfying to be able to just reach up and grab
a piece of pie of any kind that you wanted, but it would be messy and sticky
and some of the fruit pies would stain everything and think of the sugar rushes
from eating too much pie. People running around acting all willy nilly like
kids the day after Halloween from gorging on candy. This would get out of hand
very quickly if we really did have pie in the sky answers and fixes to
reflecting on ourselves. Sometimes it is easy but let’s be real, sometimes it’s
going to be hard to look at ourselves. I know for myself I faced lots of regret
and shame and many other hard to face emotions. It’s just part of the process
though. The seeing ourselves more clearly part of looking through a glass is
the part where there is sin in our lives. The more we see God and rest with Him
and in Him the more of the sin in our lives begin to disappear. Yes, we have to
turn from sin, which is an action by the way, but that turning is heartfelt and
desired because sin separates us from God and once, we learn to rest and
reflect and find that created being that He planned for us to be and want us to
be the more we want that in our lives to. As long as I am not focusing on the
created by God part of me the more easily I fall into sin which interrupts my
fellowship with God which causes me to throw myself, even unaware to me, into
the busyness of life, which for me is a sign that I am searching for me. It’s a
balance of both worlds and I understand that. Of course, as I said earlier, we
have to have business to make the world work, but we also need rest to make the
world work.
I hope that you find some time to rest, and I hope that you
have seen some reflections of yourself in my ponderings about rest. There is no
set formula for resting. The importance of resting is doing how you need to do
it and that might change from time to time, my own resting actions sure change.
I know one thing for sure, resting is a gift! Be a gift giver to not only
yourself but to the world around you and to God by remembering to rest in Him.
