I had no grid for rest. I was absolutely clueless as to how to define it.
Ok, God wants me to rest so… that must mean lounging around in my pajamas all day and reading my Bible. While it was a great thought, I was flat out bored, and borderline lackadaisical. I continued to experiment.
Rest… ok, so maybe a component of rest is figuring out what God’s will is for my future! It sounded smart.
I got out my journals and began reading through them somehow hoping that I could piece together what He was trying say. That was a pointless hypothesis. I wasn’t given every piece of the puzzle for a reason. I’m not God and often we don’t know the entire picture until after the fact.
Finally, one day I decided to get out of the house and walk the “measly” one and half blocks to the beach. Somehow, after staring at the waves for a few days it didn’t occur to me that I could have a far more tangible experience of one of my favorite places on the planet. As the space in between my toes filled up with sand and the moisture from the air coated my face I knew that I was right where I was supposed to be. I began to dance up and down the shore in and out of the white wash.
Finally.
I found it.
Rest.
In that moment, a wave of refreshment toppled over me and along with it a smile that stretched from cheek to cheek. Peace permeated my innermost parts and joy bubbled within.
“You get it Lauren," God affirmed. “Rest is doing what you love with me.”
Rest isn’t just being still. It isn’t just a calm between two storms, a reprieve after a big race, a massage after an 80-hour work week or lying on a lounge chair under a cabana. While rest does take on these forms there’s more.
Merriam Webster dictionary suggests that rest can also be defined as “peace of mind or spirit, free of anxieties.”[1]
So technically, I could be running in a marathon (if I actually enjoyed it) or hiking to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National park (which I actually just did!) and be at rest at the same time. I could be in a construction zone as chaos resounded on all sides, and 100% at peace. Rest is abiding in Jesus- for apart from Him we can do nothing. Rest is doing life hand in hand with the One we love. Rest is intimacy and intimacy is rest.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)