I don’t need to interact with very many media sources or people to hear about the challenge to so many have in getting enough rest. The challenges opposing it come from a laundry list of sources depending on who you are and what season of life you are in.

 

Those who are younger seem to be operating near the speed of light many days between work and play, responsibilities and a wide variety of leisure activities. Leisure is designed for fun and still can consume a great deal of time and energy apart from work or school.

 

Ask any young mother how her week is going and you may need to ask for a glass of lemonade for refreshment by the time she tells you all that is on her calendar. It can matter little whether or not she works outside the home full-time, part-time, or not-at-all. If she is a mom and handling all that goes into that role, enough rest can be a goal that keeps slipping out of view.

 

Mid-life doesn’t bring a great deal more rest options for many. Work responsibilities continue to grow as you move “up the ladder” and middle school, high school, and even college age children involve a lot of time and energy.

 

When you become a “senior” citizen, some think you have “all the time in the world on your hands.”  Unless there are health problems, most seniors stay very active in a myriad of ways between helping adult children and grandchildren, volunteering in ministry and other community organizations. It’s not unusual to hear an active senior say something like, “I don’t know how I had time to work before I retired.”

 

Certainly it’s true that some of the problem with our quest for rest comes from our own choices as well. Too many of us have a hard time saying “no” to things (especially if they are things we enjoy or someone who needs us). We are also prone to define ourselves by what we do and how we do it. That pushes us to keep going.

 

But this isn’t about giving you a list of things to do about self-care, even though I could easily do that. I know many such lists and tips are out there and they are helpful to the degree we implement them, but there is a deeper core issue that goes beyond time management, sleep routines, and boundary setting.

 

That issue got stirred up while reading and reflecting on passages in Hebrews 3 and 4. The writer lays out the source of the problem that starts with the condition of our hearts. As he retells some of the history of Moses, he notes the problem of “hardening of your hearts” and “rebellion.” The Passion Translation of a portion of Heb. 3:10 says: “They wander in their hearts just like they do with their feet and refuse to learn my ways.”

 

Later in that same chapter, the writer goes on to make it even clearer for us. Check out Hebrews 3:19 (TPT):

 

“It is clear that they could not enter into their inheritance because they wrapped their hearts in unbelief.”

 

Unbelief????  Really????

 

I believe in Him, but if that is true some of the evidence will be faith and trust that clarifies my identity, gives me peace in the midst of uncertainty, and buoys my confidence not only in big challenges, but also in the dailyness of life.

 

Perhaps we miss that underlying core principle and truth when we feel driven to be and do more than the Lord has asked of us. Maybe we get wooed into the world’s view of success and the grind of daily life that creates. Maybe we lose sight of the Lord and anxiety becomes a companion that impedes good sleep and rest.

 

In the midst of considering this, our pastor’s Sunday message jumped out to confirm what I was pondering in Hebrews. He reminded us of something significant in the book of Genesis (even though he is teaching through the Gospel of John).

 

When we read the Genesis account of creation, “something special happens on the seventh day − REST.”  The pastor added, “Man’s first day in the presence of God is a day of rest…then work. Learn how to rest first or your work will not be significant. If you work first, you will not rest.”

 

It confirms so well what the writer of Hebrews is telling us. The heading of chapter four in some translations is “The Faith-Rest Life.” Hebrews 4:11 (TPT) admonishes us this way:

 

“So then we must give our all and be eager to experience this faith-rest life, that no one falls short by following the same pattern of doubt and unbelief.”

 

It can be easy when I/we are busy to not take time to rest in the Lord’s presence at the start of the day. I can plead guilty to days like that, but I can also state resolutely that when I do (even if it is shorter than I might wish) it almost seems as if the Lord multiples the time that day. He helps me order my day even if that was not a specific prayer request.

 

So be sure to follow all the excellent lists of how to attain more rest, but remember the key starts with our heart, our faith, and our trust.

 

A Bible footnote related to this reads:

 

“What is the antidote to the poison of unbelief? It is mutual accountability and daily encouragement of one another.”

 

It’s also the pattern the Lord set out at the very beginning and echoes throughout the Bible that our pastor pointed out: “REST FIRST, then work.”

 

 

 

In 1934 George Gershwin composed the aria, “Summertime,” for the 1935 opera, Porgy and Bess.The lyrics are credited to both DuBose Heyward who authored the book, Porgy, from which the opera is taken, and also Ira Gershwin. The opening line paints a picture of what we think of and hope for when summer comes − “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy” −…a change of pace from the hectic days of other seasons.

 

Whether we are someone still in school looking for that wondrous summer vacation, or an adult hoping for a time at the beach or in the mountains, we hope for days and evenings to slow down. We imagine tall glasses of lemonade or iced tea, the smell of meat cooking on the grill, a fire to gather around while we make s’mores, and the sparkle of fireflies competing with stars to light up the summer night sky.

 

We look for a great new novel to enjoy at our leisure and watch for ads to farmers’ markets to get the produce that exceeds the quality of what we find in our local grocery store. We look for which musicians are heading to an outdoor venue near us. We dream about juicy berries and melon, crisp corn on the cob, and homemade ice cream.

 

We like to recall times in childhood when we experienced those and want to savor such times again, but summer doesn’t always give us what we want.

 

More and more structured summer activities start lining up on our calendar; the weather turns gray and rainy, something happens to adjust those vacation plans, and poison ivy and summer colds refuse to skip over our family.

 

Challenges of all kinds have never heard about what summer is supposed to be about. Illness still happens. Death doesn’t’ take a vacation and our boss doesn’t let go of his expectations for the new project that needs to be completed in two weeks.

 

News headlines don’t let up on a bird’s eye view of the chaos breaking out in every part of the globe. Headlines scream at us about minor and major tragedies in places we have heard of and others we didn’t know existed. They can easily stir up fear, anger, and hopelessness for a better world.

 

We want to enjoy summer as Nat King Cole sang about, “Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer…” We want to sit on our patio, porch, or deck and let our minds drift with no particular place to focus. We want to drift along on a stream in a canoe while we watch the leafy canopy above our heads cast shade and shadows on the water and us.

 

We want sunshine and cloudless skies in the summer because we often realize that we have allowed weariness to squash our wonder at the beauty around us. Such weariness was born from lack of rest and too much of everything happening most of the time.

 

What happens to our spiritual moorings in summertime? In our yearning to drift along and relax without a lot of structure, does our spiritual life drift as well?

 

Do we forget that the things we see with the natural eye point to the unseen spiritual warfare going on about us throughout the world?

 

Time and again scripture reminds us to stay alert and that if we drift, we can get off course. The writer of Hebrews makes note of that in reference to salvation in Hebrews 2:1, but I think the author’s words can have a broader application as well.

 

“This is why it is so crucial that we be all the more engaged and attentive to the truths that we have heard so that we do not drift off course.”  Hebrews 2:1 (TPT)

 

Summertime is a seasonal gift the Lord gives us to enjoy, but it doesn’t come with any guarantees to fit our desires or definition.

 

So when the rain won’t stop, look for Him beyond the clouds where his light is always shining. When illness keeps you down and the news is empty of hope and when all our plans fall apart consider this:

 

“Once you learn that you can never really plan your destination, you stop worrying so much about the map.”  

Lisa Wingate in The Language of the Sycamores.

 

Not losing sight of the Lord or his truth is the best way to assure we will find joy in the season (even if it doesn’t meet our expectations). If we are his and He is ours, our ultimate destination is set and perhaps we can let go of the unexpected stops or detours along the way. Nothing can satisfy our need for rest and refreshing as He does.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In recent weeks I have picked up an unfinished project that has been waiting for me to return for more years than I even want to say. Perhaps you have some of those as well. I have had a growing desire to handle unfinished projects and restart the process of trying to complete this one.

 

Both of my parents died in 1995 just three months apart. To say it was a challenging year would be an understatement due to many other things related to that including my need to care for a younger adult brother with mental, emotional, and physical handicaps while handling care of my parents, visiting hospitals, and more.

 

It was my task to sort through the pieces of their lives left behind and dispose of their possessions and home while working full-time, caring for my brother, and handling roles of wife and mother (among others). The task I could not begin then was sorting all the photographs my parents had accumulated after nearly 56 years of marriage. I filled assorted boxes and bags with them and brought them home with a plan to handle that task “later.” I knew the volume of photos would make that difficult, but additionally many of the photos were not dated or marked to identify who was in the photo. (Some of you have been there and had similar tasks.)

 

The containers of photos were piled and stacked under a long narrow table behind the couch in our family room. I had no other place to put them and they were largely out of the way and out of my sight, but I knew I needed to sort through all of them.

 

Our daughter gave me a special photography album she called a “heritage album” to begin to place the photos and accompanying stories in sometime after that. I was still working full-time, but on several occasions we spent some time scrapbooking together to get started. There was never enough time to make much progress so all the photos and pages I completed would be restacked for another time and place.

 

When I retired five years ago, this project was one I said I would tackle. Sadly, it felt as overwhelming as it had at the outset and other projects that had been set aside and were easier got handled first. There was a nagging awareness, however, that I needed to return to this album project. For whatever things I didn’t know about the photos, I still knew more than my children or grandchildren about those in the photos and the stories these pictures conveyed.

 

A few weeks ago I unloaded all the boxes and began to reestablish whatever order I thought I had in mind. Scrapbooking tools and pages as well as all the photos remaining (most of them) got spread over beds in guest bedrooms as well as other assorted places I could find on furniture and the living room floor to try to find some sense in how to order them.

 

It was one thing to make some semblance of order to the photos, but another to try to determine the stories, the stories of my family that the photos told. My dad died first and he was the one who could have answered all of my questions with his love of dates and history.

 

As I dug in I started researching names online and seeking out information in the local library. There is some progress, but there are (as Robert Frost might say) “miles to go before I sleep.”

 

Working on this unfinished project has reminded me of the significance and value of memories. We hear a lot about that in an era where dementia and Alzheimer’s is ravaging the minds of so many and robbing those diagnosed of memories that also rob their families of them.

 

In Out of the Silent Planet C.S. Lewis wrote: “A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered.”

 

Memories are fascinating things and may resemble a patchwork quilt of different pieces that can form a lovely pattern and yet not represent where each piece came from or its significance.

 

Memories (even those we believe are completely intact) are not truly movies showing everything without gaps. Our minds are amazing, but they do not work that way. Gaps can happen because we cannot capture all the information coming into our senses at one time as well as the emotional impact of what we are experiencing. Yet they seem to create a frame for our lives.

 

In Patty Callahan Henry’s newest book, The Favorite Daughter, she writes:

 

“Memories are alive, and they can take over; they have their own life apart from us. But what are they really?

Just some amorphous, dreamy things that shift with time, almost like ghosts. Still they cause us pain or happiness or they keep us from doing things or cause us to shiver inside and wake us up in the middle of the night.”

 

God gave us the gift of memory and therein is a paradox since scripture sometimes admonishes us on the value of remembering and other times tells us not to remember.

 

One example in Deuteronomy 8:1-2 (NIV) serves as an example:

 

“Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. ² Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”

 

 Another is found in Paul’s writing to the church at Philippi:

 

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)

 

The Lord is the one who can help us sift through memories and determine which are ones He would have us keep for our benefit and those we are to set aside. Only He knows those that serve us and his purposes well and produce wisdom, discernment, faith, and those that torment us and keep us stuck.

 

“Faith is a stalwart ship, carrying us through the gale, not destroyed by the ocean, but strengthened by it. Even the fiercest of life’s trials are no match for her sails. Trials pass like a storm. The day rises anew and we rise with the day.”

Lisa Wingate in Good Hope Road

 

 

Charles Kingsley was a priest of the Church of England in the 1800’s, as well as a university professor, social reformer, historian, and novelist. I first learned of him when I was an undergraduate in a Children’s Literature class where I had been assigned a task of creating a collection of poems and quotes to be used one day as a teacher.

 

In the process of researching the assignment, I discovered a quote by Kingsley that has echoed in my mind ever since:

 

“If you want to be miserable, think about yourself, about what you want, what you like, what respect people ought to pay you and what people think of you.”

 

I cannot say what I might think of Kingsley’s values or beliefs, but with this one quote I think he has identified one of the chief problems creating discontent. He stated it well without stating the obvious − if my entire focus is on myself, I will be most miserable.

 

It can be easy for us to swing from one end of the spectrum on self-focus to the other and I think it not only leads to discontent, but also gives Satan a great deal of satisfaction.

 

If we become self-abasing and exhaust ourselves out of motivation to NEVER consider our health, our needs, or ourselves we have been as self-focused as the one who never thinks of anyone else.

 

Our life is ever and always to be guided by God’s love and example demonstrated ‘in the flesh’ through Jesus. He pointed us to first love God and then one another. A fair perusal of his life on the earth points to what that looks like. His love never focused on self in either direction on the spectrum. He didn’t lose himself while loving others nor did He save himself from doing so even though He knew what it meant and had chosen the path before He ever left heaven.

 

Our eyes and ears appear to be tuned in to what others around us seem to have whether in the material, financial, positional, social, or relational realm. Even if our comparisons remind us we are ‘better off’ than someone else, we turn our heads just a bit more and always discover others who seem to have far more.

 

Unfortunately we as humankind have a long history of faulty understanding. So many times what we believe we want may not be the best for us and maybe even lead to consequences we would never choose.

 

Sarah was impatient about God’s promise to Abraham about having an heir so she gave her husband her handmaid, Hagar, and said she would count a child of that union as the heir and her own. That didn’t work out well at all for anyone and we all still deal with the consequences of her decision

 

Joseph was his dad’s favorite son and he had big dreams of what he was called to do and be, but he spent so much time talking about those dreams that his older brothers got fed up and sold him into slavery. God used it in the end, but it would require a lot of humbling in prison before that lesson would be learned.

 

The children of Israel had been told they were chosen of God to fulfill his purposes and that He was their king, but on earth they saw other nations and tribes with human kings sitting and ruling. They rejected God as king and asked for an earthly king. He complied and Saul was anointed by Samuel to be king, but it turned out badly for the people as well as Saul who grew jealous of a shepherd boy named David who took over as king after Saul was slain.

 

Have we considered the call or role we have received (plus whatever goes with it in power or financial provision) has a purpose we don’t see? 

 

That purpose may be solely about God’s Kingdom, but often it relates to how He wants to use it to shape our character. He asks us to trust Him in it. Sometimes we presume that means we will be stuck there for the rest of our lives without any other options or opportunities.

 

How shortsighted of us!

 

He builds one season upon another, one skill set makes way for another, and one step of growth in our character lets Him trust us for the next step.

 

If we could grasp that, really grasp that, could we slay the enemy of contentment and gain greater happiness in the moment?

 

“The secret to a happy life is not in getting what you want. It is in learning to want what you get. Don’t waste your time crying over what you’re not given. When you have tears in your eyes, you can’t see all the beautiful things around you.” 

Lisa Wingate in Tending Roses