I just got back from a week in sunny Florida, my first solo travel in 6 years. I showed up with a backpack and no plan aside from thawing out. As I kept telling people, I was just happy to be there.
This trip was a much-needed time of rest for me, a fermata of peace in the middle of a busy life. A chance to slow down and focus for more than five minutes without toddler interruptions.
But my relaxation didn’t come at a beach or theme park. It mostly came in the wee hours before the rest of the house stirred, writing and photoshopping and coffee-ing as the sun rose―same as at home (but quieter).
And it. was. GLORIOUS.
It probably doesn’t sound like rest to you, though. It probably sounds like work.
And that’s fine! Because we’re all different, we all have different modes of rest. What’s stressful to me (surfing, skiing, hiking) could be relaxing to you. And vice versa.
The problem comes when we push against God’s design by overworking without rest OR overresting without work. That’s how we burn up and bottom out.
Thankfully, we can set our lives on the shoulders of Jesus, entrusting outcomes and timing and effort to him, and enter the rest of God, the kind that is satisfying to every soul deep inside, no matter how it may look on the outside.
? What does rest look like for you? ?
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” [Matt 11:28 NIV]⠀⠀⠀