The Beauty of Rest

I discovered how tired I was when I spent a week resting in Portland. I knew I needed a break; I’d been looking forward to the time away from Austin and work for over a month. However, the full extent of my weariness only hit when I ceased from all activity.

The fact resounds loudly now, but the admission leaves a bothersome question: what to do about feeling drained and overwhelmed again? I shouldn’t allow myself to get trapped in such a low, dark place.

The answer lies in a commitment to rest regularly and to address the underlying issue. I become overwhelmed when I lose sight of the goal. I focus on me and my circumstances rather than God. As a result, anxiety, worry, and fear sprout up in my heart and head.

The emotions and thoughts then flow from my hands. I act like a moody teenager rather than a grown woman. Blame shifts, too. I allow myself to believe that I’d behave better “if only…”

Such responses fail to deal with the real problem: me. Everything spirals out of control when circumstances, rather than God’s truth, dictate my thoughts, emotions, and actions. The world becomes dark because I am dark.

I need the light of God’s word to shine into the darkness, to remind me of who he is and what he’s like. It’s “daily bread,” but it perhaps appears more distinctly during a period of rest. God exalts himself and makes himself known when I am still, not when I’m franticly trying to figure out how to get everything done or drum up more business.

Perry Noble puts the situation this way.

‘It’s only when we slow down and see the beauty that we can experience intimacy.’

There are many people—good people, Christian people—who have zero intimacy in their relationship with God because they don’t take the time to see his beauty. We’re always in a hurry, always pressing the schedule, always saying, ‘Hurry up,’ and we miss all the ways he reveals himself to us.

Which leaves me with a single solution: slowing down. I must pursue rest so that I see God in his beauty and follow hard after him.

Image: U.S. Department of the Interior (Creative Commons)