Soulfood

Alasdair Groves

Learning to work is important – but learning to rest is just as necessary to a healthy life.

What is the biggest threat to rest? Stress of things that need to get done? Failure of self-discipline? Pace of life? Smartphones/technology intruding everywhere? Anxiety that presses in?

The deeper answer: the single greatest threat to rest – what makes us restless – is that we don’t know what rest really is and how to do it.

Three problems:

1. We look for rest in the wrong places, we seek things that are not restful.
2. We don’t seek what is truly restful.
3. We miss restful practices that the Lord offers us because we don’t realize that is what He is offering.

Think of rest this way: it is “to be refreshed.”

Scriptural ways of describing it: renewal, restoration (Psalm 23), refreshment. But it is more than bringing us back to baseline – it also transcends and takes us further.

In the Hebrew mind, life and breath are synonymous. To be a living being is to breathe, and to be refreshed is to feel a breeze that brings new energy. It is new life breathed into us.

Exodus 31:17 – God rested and was refreshed – this is not a word that simply means recharging or restoration. It is tied up with enjoying the fruits of our labors, of fellowship and rejoicing in goodness. For us, it is to participate with YHWH in what He is doing.

The essence of rest is that it grows us in our ability to walk with YHWH. It is participatory – it frees us to worship, to enjoy God.

Three deadly lies:

1. Rest is wrong and we shouldn’t need it. We shouldn’t feel weary or discouraged.
2. Rest should be effortless. We shouldn’t have to work for it.
3. Rest can and only should happen when everything else is done.

But rest is not wrong. Jesus grew weary because his human body is finite – just like us. Jesus grew discouraged and lamented ministry gone wrong. (More from Kapic and Vroegrop on this later in the conference.)

And truly resting is not effortless. Doing what is easy and even pleasurable often does not leave us refreshed. Rest is not simply doing less – it is doing that which restores and refreshes us rather than those things that aren’t restful. Many activities that we think of as recreational are not relaxing or restful (even if they are healthy!). Rest is not doing less, it is working to do that which brings refreshment and enjoyment. Effortless “rest” is self-indulgent and comfort-seeking. It is not really rest.

How can I work backward from Monday morning? How can I work backward from the end of my vacation? How can I work backward from 10 minutes ago? What can I do to ensure that the time I take to rest is truly restful?

Rest can come in any shape and size. It can be a minute-sized time or weeks. Stopping even for one full minute to look at something beautiful can be restful and refreshing.

Seek to find ways to make Scripture refreshing in the way that I access it? How could I make my interactions with Scripture more refreshing?

Working backwards, what does it look like for me to find sabbath refreshing?

And rest is not earned by accomplishment. This is so hard for us to understand. We feel we have to finish a to-do list before we can rest. And when we do “sneak in” times of rest it leaves us feeling guilty, and we often can’t enjoy it because we are anxious about what we have left undone. And we can tend to become bitter and resentful towards those who do and can rest.

But God is pouring out rest constantly. He is holding forth rest to us at all times! He is the God of refreshment and He offers it to us every day. We must learn how to receive the good gift of rest from our gracious Father. All of these lies separate us from the rest our Father offers to us. Rest is not, finally, a set of activities – it is to taste and see that the LORD is good. It is to receive refreshment from God where He offers it – in Himself.

A balanced life with margin is a good and healthy goal. But rest is more than that – it is communion with a holy God who brings refreshment!