After a particularly busy week, I opted to give myself a day off. But that wasn't until 2pm when I finally surrendered to the idea that God intended that we rest to remind us that we are not God.
After observing a series of sign posts, such as the sick feeling I had when sitting at my computer, and the notification that the journalist doing the voiceover for an ad I am working on had come down with a head cold, I gave it up.
'Perhaps the lingering flu and headache I've been enduring is the signal (until now ignored, for the sake of getting things done) that I need to stop my labour and take respite?' I thought.
It can be an affliction, this Protestant desire to squeeze every ounce of effort from ourselves in the name of God, but we soon find we crumple into a heap if we have endeavoured to accomplish in our own strength whatever assignments He has appointed, or try to complete that which He has not appointed at all.
God ministered to me on a stroll, first through my beautiful friend Rose, whose wise counsel was like music to my soul and emancipated me from the fog of my thoughts. Then to observe the wonders of the evergreen lavender vine in bloom, its woody branches entangled and coiled and magnificent, pressed upon me the human need to reflect upon true beauty.
It's easy to conflate physical illness and tiredness with being spiritually out-of-whack, of God distancing himself from you in order to teach you a good lesson, at which point every time you flick open the Bible it feels like a chastisement for your folly, which is a dangerous thing. While we'd do well to reflect on where we have gone wrong, it is easy to become irrational and emotional when our basic human needs are wanting.
The great preacher and author Charles Spurgeon, whose works I am currently immersed in, once said, "The condition of your body must be attended to ... a little more ... common sense would be a great gain to some who are ultra spiritual, and attribute all their moods of feeling to some supernatural cause when the real reason lies far nearer to hand. Has it not often happened that dyspepsia has been mistaken for backsliding, and bad digestion has been set down as a hard heart?"
The great preacher and author Charles Spurgeon, whose works I am currently immersed in, once said, "The condition of your body must be attended to ... a little more ... common sense would be a great gain to some who are ultra spiritual, and attribute all their moods of feeling to some supernatural cause when the real reason lies far nearer to hand. Has it not often happened that dyspepsia has been mistaken for backsliding, and bad digestion has been set down as a hard heart?"
The mind, as with the body, simply needs adequate nourishment and rest to function at its best capacity. Letting self-care go in an effort to focus on your work, whatever it may be, means little time for self-reflection and restoration, which we need in order to be able to skip through the travails of life as if in the flow of a river, weather the inevitable blows and do the good work we were intended to do.
Sometimes, we have to let go of toil, particularly if it is that, and not your relationship with God, that you are depending on for your self-worth. "Only when you have the courage to say no will you mature, be able to address your own unmet needs, and start respecting yourself. And in time, others will too," so says The Word for Today.
Sometimes, we have to let go of toil, particularly if it is that, and not your relationship with God, that you are depending on for your self-worth. "Only when you have the courage to say no will you mature, be able to address your own unmet needs, and start respecting yourself. And in time, others will too," so says The Word for Today.
Rest equals resilience. We can ruin our futures in but a moment of indecision or doubt or wrongful choices because we are simply tired, and therefore irritable, irrational, ill. Oh, the regrettable things said, or emailed or thought, or rash decisions made on the spot, because you had failed to stop and rest and to commune with God. Sound like you? Time for some respite.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11: 28-30
Girl With a Satchel
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