Undivided: Finding Wholeness in Christ When Life Is Pulling You ApartSample

Am I at Rest?

My young grandson is an active child. He loves to run, jump, and flip all day long. It’s so cute and fun to see. That is until it is nap time. Then he whines, cries, and makes all sorts of excuses to avoid going to sleep. He sees laying down to rest as a punishment, but I am older and wise enough to know that the nap is for his benefit. So, I make him take a lie down no matter how upset he gets.

We are often like my grandson. We don’t understand how much we need to rest, so we keep going and going like the Energizer Bunny. We take pride in being hard workers, describe our behavior as driven, and continue to do even more.

This will only make us tired. We end up physically exhausted and emotionally depleted. We find ourselves frustrated, cranky, and unable to focus.

The answer to our fatigue is rest. As we rest, we gain the clarity we need to know what tasks to accept and which to refuse.

If we are going to live this undivided life, we can’t just learn how to work for God; we must also learn how to rest in God. In some cases, that means taking an actual nap or going to bed a little earlier. In others, that means resting our minds in a quiet atmosphere or finding rest for our souls in God’s Word.

This is the real-life that God invites us to recover. It’s not the fast-paced, hurry-up-and-wait, running from thing to thing life the world promotes. It’s a life filled with peace and clarity with rhythms of rest and work. It’s an undivided life.

Reflection:

In what ways have you postponed rest because you viewed it as weakness or laziness?

How can you build times of rest throughout your day?