Rest

Sleep is one of those things that all people have figured out right from birth, along with breathing, eating, and ...you know...other bodily functions. I have the unfortunate problem of really stinking at sleeping. Because of this mystifying inability to adequately perform one of the bodies most basic functions I love naps. I really love naps. They incorporate my love of quiet with my love of feeling rested, which my normal, try-to-sleep-through-the-night-like-normal-people patterns so cruelly rob me of. So to clarify: I love naps.

Unfortunately I have children. Noisy, messy, nap-depriving-but-still-lovable children.

So why am I writing about naps?

Thanks for asking!

I am writing about naps because I have been thinking a lot this year about the idea of rest and naps are all about getting rest. I can go from groggy and grouchy to bright and bubbly with a 15 minute power nap. 

Sorry. I lied. Those who know me know that I don't do bright and bubbly. Perhaps stoic, serious, with an occasional bit of silly? Anyway, naps are great for refreshing our bodies and minds regardless of how your personality does "refreshed".

The idea of being refreshed and feeling rested has taken on new importance to me the past few months. This year rather than setting a New Years 'resolution that I would have no hope of fulfilling,  I picked "REST" as my word-for-the-year. I did this out of a desire for my walk with God to be marked more and more by resting in Him. Augustine said it so well all those years ago: "Our heart is restless, until it finds its rest in thee." So this year I am pursuing rest.

Not sleep.

Not a lack of busyness . 

Soul-satisfying, life-giving, heart-filling rest. 

The kind of rest that comes from deep contentment.

The kind of rest that becomes possible with an abiding sense of security in something other than yourself.

The kind of rest that grows out of the humble admission that we are not as important (or less important) than we often tell ourselves. 

The kind of rest that allows you to see yourself exactly as you are and see your circumstances exactly as they are and still have the audacity to say everything will be all right.

That is the kind of rest that I have been actively pursuing this year. Notice that I said "actively pursuing". My three months spent focusing on 'rest' this year have taught me that we need to be deliberate in going after rest if we really are going to get what we desire.

Many people are too busy (at least, if not especially, in their minds) to ever know that it is rest that they are looking for. So they never pursue it. The internal restlessness is often something that they can't name or identify. This leads them to throw themselves in to all sorts of things, both good and bad, that they think can satisfy that "itch" in their soul: relationships, wealth, reputation, appearances, family, drugs, sex, and so on and so on. 

Except none of these things bring rest. Instead they create a monster that we are terrified of but don't know what to do with besides continuing to feed it. With our time. With our sleepless nights. With our hearts and souls and lives. 

Oh, but rest is out there. Identifying my need for rest has been a great starting point for me but I have also learned that this pursuit of rest needs to be aggressively active. Too often we confuse inactivity with rest. Don't confuse your inactivity with rest! God is waiting to enter with His rest but we need to open our hearts and minds and lives to the possibility that He does in fact know what is best for us.

So I am not there yet but here is what has helped me so far in this journey:

• Finding rest in God comes from willful, intentional, ongoing relational focus on His love, provision, care, sovereignty, and goodness.
• Rest in God can come in the midst of chaos, uncertainty, and busyness when you are looking to God for life, purpose, and joy.
• Reminders to find rest come from surprising places. My favorite has been the way my stinky-morning-breath, unkempt-hair, not-awake-enough-to-be-intelligible daughters crawl in bed with me some mornings just so that we can be in one another's presence. I want to relate to God that way rather than feeling like I need to be presentable first!
• Resting in God does wonders for an anxiety ridden, burden bearing personality.
• Scripture comes alive with beautiful, intimate, warm, God-drawing-near stories and moments we are resting in Him.

How do you find rest in life? What helps you rest in God? Have you acknowledged that rest is one of your deepest needs?