Last summer after arriving in the States for my medical furlough I didn’t do too much of anything for the first few days. I spent time with my family, slept, and drank coffee…..
Lots of coffee!
Partially this was because my eyes were still very bad (the surgery wouldn’t be till a week later). But the bigger reason was I just needed to rest.
Life has ways of wearing you down, especially if your doing the Lord’s work. After getting home I was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted because living with a cataract was very hard! So for the first week I just focused on getting rest.
One morning I took a walk around the lake near my parents town-house and took some pictures as the sun rose through the trees. In a way that rising sun was like my body and spirit that after a few days of rest was beginning to gain strength.
And in that moment, I knew everything would be okay.
As Christians we are very good at working, but we are absolutely terrible at resting! We continue pushing ourselves till our spirit and body is almost ready to collapse (like I did) and then when we absolutely cannot go any farther, then we rest!
It would be so much better to make rest part of our daily rythm.
I’m not talking about watching something on TV when I use the word “rest”. Instead I mean unplugging from technology and responsibilities for a short period of time so that we can then return with a stronger focus. A time to take a step back briefly to refresh and refocus ourselves. A time that allows us to clear our clouded minds.
The physical healing of my body began a week later as my first eye surgery was done…..
but the healing of my soul had already begun through a time of rest.
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