Rest /rest/ (verb): allow to be inactive in order to regain strength, health, or energy.

But also…

Rest /rest/ (verb): place hope, trust, or confidence in. 

Honestly, I don’t even know if I’m qualified to write this, because I don’t know if anyone is worse at resting than I am. Don’t get me wrong, I love to sleep, which I think is something we (meaning I, as well) try to call rest. But rest is something so very different, and something we (meaning I, again) have to get right.

Once upon a time, God laid out ten commandments for us in The Bible, and while I think we remember to honor our parents, not lie, not steal, not commit adultery, and have no other Gods before Him, I think we easily forget the part about keeping the Sabbath. Sabbath literally means ‘to rest.’ God is telling us to remember to rest. It literally made the top ten for things He wanted us to do. I mean… dang. 

So, why do we continually dismiss rest?  

I think there are a couple reasons we tend to use as excuses when dismissing rest. First off, we think we don’t have time. I get it, we’re busy. That’s just a fact. However, outside of things that are important, what do we really spend our free time on? I guarantee social media is at the top of the list or at least in the top three. I easily spend 15-20 hours a week on social media. Actually, I just checked my screen time report and it’s more like 20-25. That’s genuinely embarrassing to write, but I’m just here to be honest, and I hope you can do the same. 20 hours is literally a part time job. That is more than enough time to rest. 

I love a good dog video as much as anyone, but at the end of the day, social media has literally no real gain or importance. Rest does, and yet it continually comes second.

Also, tied into our addiction to social media comes FOMO (fear of missing out). We are absolutely terrified of missing out on anything. Social media plays on that so much, and it keeps us hooked. God forbid we miss out on that Instagram story – I mean, it’s only up for 24 hours, after all. Then our friends invite us to hang out, and even though we have a million other things to do or really just want a quiet RESTFUL night in, we can’t not go. What if I don’t go and they have fun without me? What if I say no and they never invite me again because they think I don’t have time or don’t want to hang out with them? There’s no time to rest when your entire friendship rides on this one meal, right? No, that’s not right at all. Are our friendships so fragile that if we miss out on one evening everything will just crash and burn and years of friendship will be down the drain? That feels insane to even type, but dang it if I don’t feel that way. However, simply put, that is just not the life God came to give us. He came to give us life to the full (John 10:10), and being constantly afraid of missing something is nowhere close to a life to the full.

I also think pride keeps us from resting. This may sound weird, but just hang with me for a minute here. We love full schedules. We may complain about it, and it can definitely be stressful sometimes. Still, there’s something in us that loves to feel like we’re important enough to be busy. I think that something is pride. That isn’t to say you can't be busy and be humble, because that is 100% possible and there are people doing it. I just don’t know if I’m always one of them, and I’m betting I’m not alone. I’m just going to say it... I love being needed – shout out to my enneagram twos out there. I love being someone’s first call. I love feeling necessary for something to happen. Jesus calls us to love people and serve people. I do my best to follow hard after Him and do what He asks of me, but somewhere deep down, a part of me that I like to ignore is prideful and just likes being important and needed. It’s ugly and it’s a battle, but that’s the truth. It’s a weird thing to think of, but you can be prideful about something humble. Aren’t humans just so interesting? We want to be too important to rest. Sometimes we probably think we are, but the One who is most important tells us to rest and even rested Himself. 

“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. So, God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation.”  

Genesis 2:2-3 ESV

So, to recap, God was creating the whole universe, and He still made time to rest. He wasn’t too important to rest. Since He is the most important, maybe it’s time we start taking this whole rest thing seriously.

So what does rest look like?  

I think this could be answered a few different ways, but at its essence, rest is whatever fills you back up after you’ve poured yourself out. To me, rest looks like making time to really spend time with Jesus. Intentional and real time in private where you can pray, or read, or just seek His voice. Rest looks like casting all my cares on Him. 

I think rest can also be as simple as saying no to something that you really don’t have time or energy to dedicate yourself to. If you aren’t filled up/rested up enough to give 100% to something, then you’re doing yourself and everyone else a disservice by saying yes. That’s something that I am making myself consider every single day because I am awful at saying no. 

Rest can also look like spending time with the people in your life who are life-giving and encouraging. You know the ones: the people who make you better and love you without taking from you or draining you. Find those people and surround yourself with them. They’re important. This list could go on, but these are a good place to start.

Rest can and does look different for different people, but at its core, real rest is found when we turn to Him. Make time to be still, like He asks us to. If we give and give all the time without taking time to rest and fill back up, we WILL end up empty. It’s not a maybe. It’s just a matter of time. God tells us to come to Him and He will give us rest (Matthew 11:28). We just have to trust Him enough to come to Him. I know trust is hard. It’s easy to break and hard to repair, but God will never let us down. If He promises to give us rest, He will. I don’t always get it right, but friends, I am here to tell you that the rest He gives is so far beyond anything this world can offer. We need only come to Him, and He can handle the rest.

“I will rest in the Father’s hands, 

leave the rest in the Father’s hands.” 

(Sean Curran, “Bigger Than I Thought”)