Rest

I love rest. I love sleep.

I know this because when I think of my favourite places in the world, they are places of rest. For a lot of people that means Castlewellan. Still waters. Clear air. Open sky. A forest to play in. Closeness to God. (My other one is more fake- “Castaway Creek” at Typhoon Lagoon in Disney World... just floating round all day with nothing to do.)

I love rest. So how is that sometimes when I am chilling out I feel bad about it? I can feel this vague guilt. I can feel like I should be doing something. Should be always on the move. Should be producing something, making, writing, studying working... And it stops me from truly resting.

According to the pros we should get 8 hours sleep every night. And falling asleep with the TV on stops us from getting the full benefits. Why is it that I never find time for eight hours sleep? When I can’t get to sleep because my head is racing, I put on TV as something to focus on. But then I live life tired.

I’m in a bit of bad health this week because last week I was working too hard and not sleeping enough. My work’s not as good, and I can’t go out and do the things I want to do.

What’s going on?

We already know the answer.

We live life too fast. Expect too much of ourselves. Push hard for results and work and money. And we suffer for it. Miss out on moments. We might ‘do’ more... but we lose out on the quality.

In Egypt, the Hebrews were in slavery. Working in the hot sun to make bricks without straw. Day in, day out.

So when God rescued them that changed. When God gave them a new set of laws for how they would live he included rest. “In our society, everybody gets a day off. No excuses.” It’s right up there with murder and adultery!

Because over-work is oppression. It’s a kind of slavery. And we’ve been set free from it. Led out of Egypt.

So, what does this mean? Doesn’t this just take all our tiredness and pile on a big pile of guilt for not following God’s law? Well... no.

It’s just that sometimes we need permission. Permission to have a nice sit down. Permission in exam season to make sure we also do some gaming/painting/music-making/talking to friends. Permission to say “Actually. I’ve done all my work for today. Now it’s time to rest.”

And if you can't sleep, just 'key down' for a while. Put issues to one side and just be. Just rest.

It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.

Psalm 127: 2

Night night.