Resting Well

I can’t remember talking with someone who considered themselves well rested. Most people are at the precipice of exhaustion. Some of us haven’t had enough sleep for a decade! We are guilty of jam-packing twenty-nine hours’ worth of vigor into twenty-four. Insufficient sleep has become so problematic the Center for Disease Control has deemed it a “public health epidemic.”

Among other issues, fatigue causes thousands of traffic accidents every year. It slows our cognitive processing and is related to serious health problems such as heart failure, diabetes and strokes. But the reality that it impairs judgment about our need for rest, I found most fascinating! Somehow we think we’re above slowing down. It’s those other poor souls who can’t hack it. All we need is a power nap or an espresso to keep going. 

The truth is, we deceive ourselves.

Even the Son of Man got tired. Once Jesus and the disciples boarded a boat, and a great storm developed. Jesus, unmoved by the hurricane-force wind and ferocious waves, sleeps through it (Matt. 8:23-24). This is not a cruise ship, and the disciples were not pansies. These were experienced fishermen who believed they were about to die. The God-man was simply exhausted.

Another time He and His disciples were traveling by foot to Samaria (John 4:6). Jesus, physically tired from the journey, needed to stop and rest, just like you and me. 

You see, God created humanity to require rest. “Six days you shall labor,” (Exodus 23:12), “but on the seventh, you shall rest.” Contrary to my backward and twisted thinking, resting is not a sign of personal weakness. It’s not punishment for not being able to do it all myself. It is simply God’s good intent toward us (Psalm 23:2).

God knows our tendency toward exhaustion: physically, emotionally and often spiritually. But don’t think for a minute resting well is a call to lazy couch potato living. On the contrary! There are six days set aside for work which suggests we will be productive most of the time. But there is also a high price to pay for NOT resting. You and I need to find the Biblical balance.

Over the next few days, we will discover what the Bible says about rest, the cost of not resting, and strategies you and I can implement for learning to rest well in Christ.