Those Who Labor

Have you noticed that when you lose weight, for instance, you suddenly start noticing that people around you are heavier than you thought they were?  What we perceive as being normal we don’t pay attention to … and then when our perception of normal changes, we see what used to be normal as abnormal, and we notice it particularly.

            So it is with my currently­favorite subject, rest.  I used to be strung out all the time.  Work and worry was the status quo, and although I don’t think I ever really liked that lifestyle, it had become very much a habit.

            Then, bit by bit, the Lord began to break me of it.  I’m learning to rest.  And as I’m learning to rest, I’m appalled by the realization that rest is incredibly unpopular.  Work is popular and entertainment is popular, but rest is a pariah.

            Have you ever considered that rest is actually holy?  Set apart?  Obviously a very spiritual thing?  Rest is more spiritual than work, and very possibly every bit as spiritual as prayer.  I would have to define rest as a very high form of worship, as well, since it openly acknowledges a trust in God.

            The rest that I’m talking about is both a mental and a physical thing, and they feed off of each other.  For instance, I make the choice to trust the Lord to take care of certain things so that I can give my body a rest.  As I rest my body, perhaps in a chair or on a bed, I have the opportunity to communicate with Him, and that rests my mind.  A rested mind, in turn, improves both my ability to work and my ability to obtain physical rest.  I find it a simpler thing to hear from the Lord and to follow Him, and in turn my path becomes brighter and my load becomes lighter.

            So if rest is such a fabulous, delightful thing, why on earth do we fight it so hard?  Why do we avoid it like the plague?  Why do we make so many excuses for why we aren’t doing it?

            We’re busy.  Well, okay, so when God had just created the heavens and the earth and everything that was in them, do you suppose He had nothing to do?  I mean, come on!  Surely He had a lot more problems than He’d had before He started all of that.  But He rested, anyway. 

            There will always be something to do.  There will always be something pressing to do.  If you’re around other people, there will always be someone who is upset with you for doing nothing instead of doing what they want you to do.  Guaranteed, someone will be less than pleased because you’re resting, either mentally or physically.

            If we could ever really enter into rest, though, we’d find so much life in it. 

            This is our land of promise.

            Rest.

            Jesus is still calling to all who labor: Come to me, and rest. 

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