It’s amazing, the topic of rest keeps popping up in my life. Two young women that I am mentoring have mentioned it in the last couple of days. Another talked about it a couple of months ago. And I received the gift of rest on my birthday.

All of these women (including myself) have the same problem: we don’t know how to rest. We don’t know what it means to rest. We don’t know what it looks like or what it should feel like.

Why not?

Guilt? We feel selfish perhaps that we are not being productive.

Lack of confidence? We can’t find our identity apart from doing something.

We are just that uptight? To try to unwind feels unnatural, even scary since it is so unusual.

Whatever the case, I think rest is something we all need. It rejuvenates, makes us more productive (fear of un-productivity pushes us to work nonstop), and we learn that we are not all about what we do or don’t do. Besides that, God wants us to. Remember the Sabbath commandment? Sabbath means “stop.” Stop doing what you normally do. Rest.

I hope you have some time to rest this weekend. Start slow. We can’t rest for long periods of time when we’re not used to it. And, if it doesn’t work, don’t worry about it. It will one day.

Rest is not quitting
The busy career,
Rest is the fitting
Of self to one’s sphere.

~John Sullivan Dwight