I am a hyper-productive person. I don’t like to waste time. When I am working, I am often multi-tasking. When I am done for the day and “resting”… well, I just don’t rest well. I don’t sit still well without something to do – be it checking email, crocheting, folding laundry. This is something my husband and I have joked about since our dating days – I cannot REST. Sometimes it seems as though I wasn’t created to rest.
I have been listening to the BEMA Discipleship podcast and have found it refreshing and challenging to my soul. This podcast is all about understanding the scriptures in the indigenous way it was written – meaning, written to the Jewish community and culture rather than the 21st century western culture. So for instance – understanding that while the western culture puts what is important at the beginning or end of a writing, the Jewish culture puts what is important in the middle. You want to know the point of an Old Testament passage? Look to the middle and that’s where the lesson is.
Rest from the Beginning
Take the creation story of Genesis 1. It’s easy to think through the repetition and the poetry that the scripture is about God creating. And yet, the middle of the text – where the important meaning is – is about REST. The repetition of “there was evening and morning, the next day” is actually a message for us to find REST. In our Western way of thinking, we approach each day with a morning start, a day full of productive work, and then an evening of rest as reward for our labors. In the Jewish culture, each day starts at sundown the day before. Each day starts with REST and then a move into the work we are called to do. REST begins the day – it doesn’t end it.
Gift of Rest
When God created humans, God created them to rest WITH God – to be in relationship with God and to live in peace with God. We weren’t created with the intent to work ourselves to the bones, to live over-busy distracted lives. We weren’t made to withstand day after day and week after week without time off. If we look to the heart of the creation narrative, over and over we are reminded of the importance of rest – every day BEGINS with rest. With this understanding of scripture, we come to realize and grow into the understanding that God doesn’t think we need to earn our rest with our productivity. NO – God doesn’t reward our busyness. Rather, God gifts us with time to rest and be with God so that we can then set forth to live the day we are called to live.
DOING Rest
The next natural question is “what do we DO with this rest?” NOTHING. If we are asking the question about DOING something, we are missing the point. REST. Find peace. Sit with God. Do things that bring you JOY. For most of us, that isn’t laundry, meal planning, chores, or work. It may look more like enjoying a nice day, reading a favorite book, spending time with the people God put in our lives. This rest, or sabbath time, can also be a time we seek to be closer to God through our own devotion or spiritual direction. When we are about being and living in these ways, we are able to experience the goodness God has for us more fully. We become more attentive to God in our midst and we even begin to recognize the movements of the Spirit. This only happens when we allow for time and rest. We find joy. Peace. Energy. Creativity.
Simply put, we are created to rest. Guilt free. Blessing filled. God given.
What a gift.