Rest

There was a day when I allowed myself to rest.  As the pandemic continues and we receive all kinds of information about its effect on people around the world, our family sits comfortably in a safe, country home with food, internet, clean space outside, and everything we need.  There are days where I can start to feel guilty that this crisis hasn't been harder on me or my family.  When people ask us how we're doing, I continue to tell them that this is the easiest crisis we have had to live through so far.  In other cases, we didn't have access to money, there was social unrest, there was no electricity or petrol, we couldn't use the internet or our phones, and other difficult things.  In this case, since we still don't know anyone personally who has died of the disease and we aren't in a hot spot, the hardest thing for us is just not knowing when we can get back home.

So, I can start to feel guilty.  Why do I have it so easy when so many others are suffering so greatly?  Why are my family and friends all safe when so many others aren't?  Why should we have a stable, normal time when others are feeling the strain so pointedly?  I start to feel that it's not fair that I should be grateful for the normalcy and stability our family is experiencing.

But then, thankfully, the Lord stepped in this week.  I was reading about creation from Genesis.  It hit me that God rested on the 7th day.  Did he need it?  No!  God is all-powerful.  He doesn't get tired or grow weary.  He doesn't need the rest.  WE need it.  It also says that God made us in His image.  That's true, but we aren't Him.  We aren't all-powerful.  He created us to need rest.  To live in the rhythms of sleep and wakefulness, planting and harvest, eating and drinking, and even instituted it in his Law through commandments of sabbath rest, sabbatical years, and years of Jubilee.  He rested as an example to us of its importance in our lives.

We are not often given permission to rest in our western culture.  Unless we have an extra job, work overtime, our kids are in one more extra-curricular activity, we join all the organizations, we can feel that we're not doing enough.  But that isn't how God made us to be.  I'm trying to let these false expectations fall off my shoulders.

What does God really want me to do today?  Didn't He know that I'd be here, in this community, during the pandemic?  He surely knows where I should be and what I should be doing.  So, I can rest.  Because of God's grace, I can let go today.  I can enjoy nature.  I can spend time with my family.  I can read a book, play a game, write a blog post . . . Because of God's grace, I can rest.