Rest

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 

Genesis 2:2 [ESV]

Believe me- I get it.

In a world that’s going 24/7 no matter where you look, the concept of “rest” seems foreign.

I’m talking serious rest. Not just- Oh let’s plop down on the couch and binge Netflix (which, I actually don’t have, but y’know. it’s the aesthetic that counts.) It’s not even “Okay, everyone leave me alone I’m going to stare blankly at this wall.”

There is no “right way” to rest. It’s subjective.

I live by a college campus where my parents do college ministry. Yeah, it’s pretty epic- I get to use that as an excuse to hang out with all the cool college kids *cue sunglasses*.

I’ve noticed something though. Everyone else on staff or helping serve are literally going twenty-four/seven. Yeah, not exactly 24/7, but close enough. During the first week of school during the freshman outreach events, most of the staff didn’t get home until 2am, and had to be back on campus before 10:00am.

Yeah.

My whole family is extroverted. Most of the people I see around the ministry building are extroverted.

But I. . . heh, yeah no. I am a little introvert who has been THRIVING in quarantine.

So being around extroverts and around people going hard all the time, I’ve not really been taught the practice of rest.

Most people are told to rest on Sunday, right? Well. . . when you’re in a ministry family, Sunday is preeeetttyyyy busy. So, there’s that.

PLUS

A lot of time, alone time/rest sounds selfish.

And okay, I’ll give you that. Too much alone time = overthinking = self-analysis = depression = yeahnothanks.

However, neglecting yourself isn’t the answer either. ESPECIALLY if you’re constantly pouring into other people.

This past week, I’ve had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with three women I really admire.

One is a college girl who is where I wanna be one day (hey- I can dream, can’t I?)

Another is the wife of a staff member who has a ton of GREAT advice that I’m still trying to fully grasp

And the last was a someone my parents knew from way back when. She has some kids my age, and they’re in the mission field (where I wanna be one day, even if it’s not this specific country)

I admire all of them for different reasons, but they all have a couple things in common.

A solid quiet time, and the ability to rest.

I won’t go into quiet times, because that’s a whole ‘nother post, but there’s something to be said about rest.

One of them mentioned occasionally going to a coffeeshop to get away and just read her Bible and journal. It’s not much, but it’s “enough” to keep her going and thriving.

Another mentioned just being able to sleep in, and hang out with her husband and just relax.

There’s not right way, it’s all subjective. But it is important.

Today, I went to Chick-fil-a (they gave me two extra nuggets, but do we expect anything less?), got a coffee at the coffeeshop I work at, and am currently writing this on the large patio at our ministry building.

I got a chance (after I wrote that English paper I’d been dreading) to chill, eat, read a book, text some friends, and write this scatterbrained post.

For me- That was rest. Just being able to breathe and not think about the million things that are coming next week or even later today (*instantly starts thinking about the million things that are coming*).

I know this was kinda all over the place, but hopefully you got something out of it.

It’s okay to rest.

I mean.

Come on.

If the Creator of the Universe rested, the least you can do is take thirty minutes to journal and regenerate, yeh?

(the end.)

(Keep an eye out for more posts though, because I have started having lotsa thoughts. . . they just have to marinate in my head for a hot minute before I can type them out semi-coherantly. I’m working on coherency. . . it’ll come. . . or so they say.)