it's ok to rest

In less than a month my husband and I will begin our pilgrimage across the country to our summer place on Lake Michigan, in a community called Epworth Heights.  When I first started returning to Epworth as an adult, it was for eight weeks each summer.  It felt like a decadent amount of time to retreat from normal life.  Of course, with small children it was not totally retreat.  But now, with my children grown, it is much more restful.  Our kids and grands are all there with us, but keeping them fed and busy is primarily their parents’ responsibility. 

Nevertheless, I am retreating from many other responsibilities in my church and with my friends.  Eight weeks is a seventh, or a sabbath of a year.   And now I can stay even longer than that.  I am not leaving civilization.  I am moving into another place with plenty of other activities and relationships.  When I was younger and had more energy, I felt that I could not simply leave my life for eight weeks of rest without filling up my schedule with more projects in this new place.  I would say, “I’m not on vacation, I’m entering another community.”  Why was I so hesitant to say that I was going to rest? 

When in Epworth, I spend a lot of time looking at the lake.  There is an unceasing rhythm to the sea, waves pounding against stone and sand on the shore, always another wave behind the last.  With all that incessant movement, why is watching the lake relaxing instead of exhausting?  It never stops.  What if I tried to live like that? 

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.  After all, the very rhythm of ebb and flow infers that there is a thrust in a wave, followed by a moment of rest.  It’s the inhale and exhale of a lake, which in our bodies needs to be constant.  We actually would be depleted (no, dead!) without it. 

We are commanded in scripture to rest.  To God, rest makes us more dependent, more teachable.  If we learn to rest properly, rest restores God’s image in us.  The prophet Isaiah gives a picture of restorative rest.  He says that when the Spirit of the Lord is poured out on his people, the desert will become a fertile field, the people will live in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.  When we learn how to rest well, we are getting a foretaste of this promise. 

I saw a sign the other day as I was driving across Altadena: “It’s OK to rest”.  In the wake of the utter devastation left by January’s Eaton Fire, there has been a constant whirr of machine activity.  Land is being scraped, contaminated topsoil removed.  People are considering rebuilding and all the effort that will take.  But here was a reminder to take time to rest.  It’s okay to rest.  It’s more than okay to rest.  Rest is essential for the desert to become a fertile field again.

Love, Liz 

“The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.  He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.  He renews my strength.”  Psalm 23