The Revolution of RestSample

REST AS HEALING

Picture yourself as being made up of a series of wells. These wells contain your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energy. From each of these wells, you draw on the energy you need to live. Each day you take from these wells, neglecting to replenish the energy in each one, so that eventually there is nothing left to draw on, and you begin to break down, to deteriorate, to suffer.

Our wells all have different capacities. Some of us can feel that depletion almost immediately, while some of us may be able to operate with our wells close to empty for a very long time.

Bit by bit, we give ourselves away without considering what we need to do to restore ourselves to wholeness. We use our busyness as an excuse not to confront all the ways we are hurting. We give ourselves permission to ignore our needs because we don’t have time to address them.

Rest would give us this time if we only let it.

We can begin to change that as we learn to understand rest as healing.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus consistently and intentionally healed on the Sabbath day. These healings are one of the biggest points of contention for the religious leaders, who these miracles as a violation of Jewish law.

In Luke 13:10-17, Jesus healed a woman whose back pain had prevented her from walking upright for eighteen years. The religious leaders considered this miraculous healing to be "work", but Jesus did not. Jesus was not going to let this woman suffer on a day that was supposed to be about refreshment.

Meanwhile, the religious leaders’ superficial observance of the Sabbath had become another type of work: the work of keeping up appearances and following strict rules.

Their Sabbath was not true rest. They had lost sight of what the Sabbath really was: A time for healing.

Jesus’ deliberate choice to heal people on the Sabbath is his attempt to remind them of this fundamental truth. He reminds us that for as long as God has made rest holy, its purpose has been to make us new, make us whole, to heal us.

And this purpose goes beyond just our bodies. In Leviticus 25, God commanded the Israelites to make every seventh year a sabbatical year for their fields. During this year, they were to let the land rest for the entire year, giving it time to naturally regain its nutrients, to recover from the constant stress of growing new crops.

When we rest, the healing we receive through God’s holy presence spills over into the rest of our week. We are more equipped to be ourselves. We bring wholeness to our work.

We need the healing that God provides us in his holy rest more than we know. God is calling you to rest, to begin to heal from all the ways hustle culture has been tearing you down, exhausting you, and using you.

Hustle culture is a disease. Resting with intention and commitment, in resistance, with God, is the cure.

REFLECTION:

1. Reflect on your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wells of energy. How full or empty are they?
2. Reflect on what you have been told, directly or indirectly, about the importance of taking care of your needs. Has this information helped or hindered your ability to rest?
3. In what ways do you need to heal from the hustle?

GUIDED PRAYER:

"Rest is Holy" was written by Amber Tremblett.