I have just been on holiday. “About time too”, some of my friends would say! Appropriately the day before I went away we had a preacher at WCC who talked about how on the seventh day God rested, blessed it and made it Holy … it became a HolyDay. What God established that day was rest.

 

Got me thinking… if God established it, rest must be a holy thing, a spiritual act and therefore an important part of our make up if we are to reach our full potential.

 

I enjoy working (some would dispute the fact that being a minister is actually working!!) and have always put in the hours in whatever job I have had in the past. I have therefore had to work hard (if you pardon the pun) at resting. Frequently I will see notes in my diary in the unmistakable handwriting of Carly to say that we are having a trip out to somewhere alone, (we call it marriage time) and woe betide me if I make another appointment on that day!!

 

The thing is that whilst we tend to divide up our lives between the spiritual and the physical, rest and work, and the emotional from the physical I am not sure that God sees it that way.

 

I don’t think that it’s a proverb but there is a saying that goes “change is as good as a rest” and I think that is very true. I think going for a run, playing a game of golf, visiting a National Trust property, perhaps even shopping (careful!), going for a walk by yourself or with a friend can be spiritual acts if they are put in the context of rest and the balance of life.

 

On that first holyday when Adam was walking in the Garden with God he must have found that resting was great and what is more it was a spiritual act of connecting body soul and spirit together.

 

Rest is God-honouring and weariness is not. We all get tired and we should work hard (that is God-honouring as well) but if you are constantly working at the worn out level then there is something wrong. Jesus didn’t say “come to Me and I will make you able to stand the pressure for the rest of your life”. He said “come to Me and I will give you rest”. Great words but what do they mean and how do we do it?

 

Jesus was not asking us to connect to a set of rules, He was not asking us to do religious stuff, He was simply asking us to connect to Him, to submit to Him, to show commitment to Him, to be yoked to Him and not to try to pull away from that yoke but to simply engage constantly with Him.

 

Whilst He often withdrew to the quiet places for rest himself and to spend time alone with God, He also rested with His mates – His disciples – when He was on the earth. They had meals together, they went for boat rides together, they went for walks together, went fishing together and probably did loads of other stuff as well. Out of the rest they then worked.

 

Rest does me good. I know that. It brings a sense of perspective, freedom and helps me to enjoy life as I should.

 

I’ve learned so much about rest recently that in fact I have now booked up another holiday for September!!

 

Must go now as I see someone else’s handwriting in my diary for an event this afternoon!!

 

‘Till next time

Rich