Rest

Do you ever feel as if you can’t possibly squeeze one more thing into your head? Your eyes glaze over. You can hear what is, at first, a distant humming sound which gradually increases in volume until it drowns out the voices around you.
 
Please tell me I am not the only person who ever feels overloaded with information, noise, things that need to be done; other people’s stuff – their good news, their bad news and their needs.
 
The other night I noticed my computer was backing up data – I stopped for a moment to watch the icon – copies of all those folders and documents flying onto the backup device.
 
And I wished I could do the same with all the stuff in my head! I wished I could make a copy and deposit the information somewhere safe – knowing it was there if I needed to recall it – but feeling the freedom of not having to actively hang onto it all!
 
Rest – we all need it.
We all need spiritual, physical, intellectual and emotional rest.
We need what God calls a “sabbath” - a regular time in our week when we stop our everyday work and rest.
 
This is a pattern God established when he created the world - we are made to work for a while then stop and rest for a while.
 
We have been created with the biological need to stop and rest – and when we don’t we are more likely to have accidents, sleep too little or too much, experience fatigue, irritability, organ failure, mental health and other health issues. When we don’t stop, and rest our relationships suffer.
 
When we don’t stop, and rest we find ourselves longingly staring at the back up icon on a computer screen!
 
What action will you take towards the regular habit of stopping and resting?
 
Maybe you will stop and rest listening to or playing beautiful music.
 
Perhaps at the beach, in the bush, in your garden.
 
Maybe stopping and resting happens for you when you are sharing good food with good friends
 
Perhaps rest comes for you with the taste of communion bread and wine and the pages of the bible open in front of you
Maybe walking, or swimming, or riding - playing with children or grandchildren
This week is a good week to start taking some Sabbath time – time to stop and rest.

Karen Siggins