If we are all dealing with a rest deficit, how do we resolve this issue? Most of us have already tried a variety of ways and not really reached the goal we hope. Given how rest deficits influence not only our enjoyment of life but our health, it behooves us to not keep ignoring this ongoing problem that afflicts most of us.

An article from Integris Health on April 16, 2021, reports:

“Even without a pandemic, Americans are stressed. About 33 percent of people report feeling extreme stress, and up to 73 percent report that stress impacts their mental health.”

Maybe we need to consider whether we really know what rest means. I know that sounds absurd but clearly there is more to it than we tend to realize or consider. And consideration means deliberately taking time to do that. If we start with health articles, we will get good ideas, but they will sometimes add more “to do” to get to the goal instead of accomplishing what we need.

Does rest mean sleeping? Doing nothing?

When I was growing up, that was what I believed. Resting meant a nap on Sunday afternoons(“a day of rest”) after church and lunch. It was a part of honoring that day. The scriptural admonition found in Exodus 20:8 provides the basis of those habits my parents encouraged.

“In Exodus 20:8 we are commanded to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. This commandment to observe a set-apart time to rest has been overshadowed by the ‘thou shalt nots.’ The only commandment urging us to remember is the main one we have forgotten. The unending list of things that need to get done stands before us like a drill sergeant barking orders. In the midst of the noise, rest sounds like one more item added to an overwhelming list.

God did not make rest a mere suggestion. He commanded it.”

Saundra Dalton-Smith, MD

What I did on those Sunday afternoons that was for “a day of rest” was sleeping. Perhaps that was something you learned too. But rest and sleep are not the same thing. Little wonder we are not getting all this straight when we start to look at this issue.

“So many Americans are caught in the grind of work, family responsibilities and ongoing stress. Often, we only allow ourselves to truly rest on holidays or vacation. However, it’s so important to prioritize adequate rest and quality sleep in your everyday life. Rest and sleep are two different things, but both are equally important to your mental, emotional and physical health. Plus, prioritizing rest can actually improve your quality of sleep.” 

Integris Health, April 16, 2021

Too many of us too often have issues with sleep. It can be difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep or any number of things that interrupt our efforts to get the sleep we have known we need, but perhaps one of the keys to better sleep is to realize that if we undestood better how to rest, sleep might also be improved.

“Sleep is different from rest, but good quality sleep trickles down from a life well rested. We may sleep in response to rest, but resting doesn’t require us to be in a state of sleep.”

Saundra Dalton-Smith

When God began to create the world, the heavens, and everything else, it seems He conveyed that every aspect needed rest in some form or another. Changes of seasons bring our trees in the Midwest United States from shades of green to golds, yellows, oranges, and red, and then they drop to the ground as colder temps begin and the wind gusts and days grow shorter. For months they stand as barren sentinels and may appear dead when it might seem they are resting instead so that when spring comes, and flowers appear on the fruit trees a new harvest can begin to grow.

For the Israelites, God told them in Leviticus 25 that after planting and harvesting for six years they were to allow the land to rest the seventh year so the poor could eat. There was no planting that year and yet it was resting and allowed the poor to be able to find some bits of food. Letting the land replenish also was at the heart of what my father did when he was a farmer and rotated the crops in the field since some things he planted depleted the soil more than others. A crop rotation can help to manage your soil and fertility, reduce erosion, improve your soil’s health, and increase nutrients available for crops.

Isn’t it sad that men and women seem to be the ones who most stumble over the issue of rest? We become driven more quickly than we intend. We push to do more to affirm we are capable, competent, sacrificial, and more. If we are believers, we may set aside many things we perceive as not good so we can have a deeper spiritual life and then begin adding so many good things, we run out and become depleted before we even recognize it. Ministry no longer is joy for us, and our creative juices leak away.

Little wonder we are entangled and may even resist the things needed to get the rest we need to live life to the fullest. Rest is not about stopping doing, but it is how we replenish ourselves to live life to the fullest. Rest can be active or passive, but the need for it cannot be ignored.

I recall so well a saint in the Lord I loved dearly more than 40 years ago who shared this nugget with me, “The enemy uses two tools against us very effectively that we must keep watch for. He makes us busy, or he makes us tired…sometimes both.”

Over the next few posts, we will look at identifying different types of rest and explore how replenishing them with the right kinds of rest can break the cycle we seem perpetually to be pulled back into despite our best efforts.

“Healing and wholeness require access into our lives, and room to make us better. That is what rest does. Rest causes you to be still and seek to know God. It calls you to look deeper at yourself and your surroundings. It forces you to stop. We often view life as if looking through the window of a speeding car. Rest, rather implores you to slow down and fully live. It challenges you to shift from having the scenery fly by in a blur to inhaling the scent of pine on the scenic route of your life. To take it all in and experience it. Rest is not simply pushing the pause button on your day. Rest is not merely taking a break. Rest is about replenishing, restoring, renewing, recovering, rebuilding, regenerating, remolding, and repairing. Rest begins with the prefix re- because it requires us to go back to a prior state. It is a second chance. It’s an opportunity to put back in order anything that has shifted out of alignment with God’s best.”

Saundra Dalton-Smith

When I look at a compass, I am reminded of how often mankind has been trying to find our way to somewhere at some point in time and how much that little device was used to chart waters, deserts, and large land masses to discover the world in which we live. Few even think about or own a compass now. It’s the GPS on our phone that tries to get us to the place we want to go. Sometimes it seems to lose its way as well even though it is much better as a tool than it once was.

Over time we have had prompts from every direction to find our way, to determine our goals, to find a purpose, and to make our lives count but along the way have we lost the original design for us and gotten onto a ‘yellow brick road’ looking for a wizard to fix what we lost or was shattered?

It can happen to any of us and perhaps it has happened to all of us to one degree or another. For all the advances in every facet of our existence, it seems things have only gotten worse, and we can too easily find ourselves driven, caught on a gerbil wheel and unable to get off. We aren’t even sure how we got there because it didn’t happen instantly. Could it be that we were listening to ancient whispers urging us to do more to be able to be more so that we mattered?

“What we assume is a normal lifestyle is absolute insanity to the God-given nature of our heart and soul. Broad is the path that leads to destruction, and many there are who travel it.”

John Eldredge

What about this God-given nature Eldredge is referring to?

The Creation story speaks of God’s great work on the first six days, and we often ponder those and marvel at how He spoke things into existence and then took time to create humankind out of the dust of the earth and breathed life into us. But do we miss that on that seventh day He, God, rested? God actually rested and hence the Sabbath was supposed to be a “day of rest”, but did we miss what He wanted us to see about this seventh day in which He rested? We find ourselves tangled and twisted into pretzels trying to gain something and then try to rest and perhaps we don’t even understand what rest is or is supposed to look like. That word, “rest,” is used 257 times in scripture.

We see Jesus with only a short time on earth modeling for us what it means to rest if we pause to reflect on the stories we read.

“It’s a practice Jesus himself cherished…I’ve always been intrigued by his ability to just up and walk away from his world. “

John Eldredge

More books and articles, podcasts, workshops, and even sermons are addressing the epidemic issue of our fast-paced lives that keep looking for more rest while often making the wrong choices that leave us still weary and empty.

“Our wheels spin as we shove more to do in a day with no available daylight hours left, only to find ourselves wanting in the end. Not wanting more to do. No, we have plenty to do. We find ourselves wanting more time to do the things we enjoy.”

Saundra Dalton-Smith, MD

Most of us have tried to regain balance in our lives in eating, exercise, media use, and more. We have tried great books and the wonderful Pause app by John Eldredge, prayer, and trying to set better boundaries. So why do we keep getting snagged again and again? Is it because we have difficulty refusing to reduce or eliminate the “good” things we are asked to do, ministry things, or any number of really good outreach opportunities?

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me, and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG)

Sounds good, doesn’t it and we have all likely read that passage and still have not been able to follow through on what Jesus was telling those who followed Him, people just like you and me. Have we believed the lie that to rest means we are weak and incapable because everyone else seems to be going full speed ahead? Do we still have that concept clinging to us that says the more we do, the more successful we will be?

“A life without periods of rest will not endure the daily grind. Rest is not for weaklings. Hollowing out space for rest is work. Finding time for rest is the hands and feet of the promises we long to claim. It means saying no. It means having limits with ourselves. It means having limits with others. It takes courage to rest in the midst of an outcome-driven society. It takes strength to walk away from good in pursuit of better.”

Saundra Dalton-Smith, MD

Be sure to begin the journey to rest and balance but know it will be thwarted without courage, discernment, and wisdom. It’s not about checking out of life or even out of work or doing good things, but it does mean the enemy of our souls will tempt us in every way because he fears us drawing closer to the Lord and experiencing greater levels of intimacy with Him, following the model He laid out at the beginning.

God doesn’t slumber or sleep as Psalm 121:4 says, but from the beginning of his story He rested and we are made in his image, designed to rest to replenish every aspect of who we are and reflect the image of the One who created us.

We have passed through that “most wonderful time of the year” and the hands on the clock and the sands in the hourglass of 2021 have passed now. Some Christmas trees still twinkle near hearths and most gifts are finding a place in our homes. The fridge is less full, and the house is more in its usual order. The house that was preparing for friends and family is quieter too if we were able to have them here this year. New Year’s festivities have ended too, and now we enter the uncharted waters of 2022.

For two years we have been caught up in the throes of the pandemic and most of us hoped by the end of 2021 it would no longer be a threat. Now we know it is not over and follows us into 2022 in different forms and yet not gone. Some are not sure about making resolutions as we have been living in the uncertainty that has crushed hope for some and brought too much disappointment to many more.

But we have lived with uncertainty before for many reasons. Many of us recall the fears and trepidation about entering a new century when we crossed into 2000. Pandemics have haunted other years and the other aspects hitting us now have been around before as well even if the number of them and the tempo seem to be greater than ever before. Without an awareness of those things, some of us can tend to feel a downward tug after the lights, color, and anticipation of Christmas. In the northern hemisphere as the daylight hours are shorter and the weather more inclement, we long for spring and a return to outdoor activities that don’t require boots, coats, scarves, and gloves.

And I recall not being fond of those months of January through March as well, as they seemed boring and drab when the skies were gray and much of most days meant I was indoors.

And then some time ago (can’t recall when) I began to appreciate this season as I had not. It may have started when I was teaching and had those unexpected “snow days” when school was closed and our children and I could enjoy pajamas, hot cocoa, and a fire in the fireplace with books to keep us company. Something definitely shifted and I began to enjoy the Christmas season and yet look forward to these months I never used to like. I appreciated the quieter schedule and it seemed as though there was an interlude before the busier spring, a pause that God put in place for us to grow to enjoy.

Today I am looking at the stack of new books waiting to be explored and I feel anticipation of all that I will experience as I go on an adventure with each author. The challenge before me is which one to choose first and which ones I need to still finish. (You will likely hear more about that since they often provide themes and quotes for new posts.)

I often devour a good novel and love when a topic and an author invites me to look more deeply into a nonfiction topic. I am in the midst of one of those that I am chewing slowly, and it relates to what we tend to miss about the need we have for rest and how to identify the rest we most need and whether it is really the path we tend to take. Some of us think our lives are boring and we have too much time on our hands, but most of us are likely to have schedules that get filled up before we even try. Then we are aware that they are not all that enjoyable.

I wonder what gives you a sense of rest (in the most positive sense of the word). When we were locked down throughout parts of the pandemic, most of us would not have defined that enforced government edict to be restful whether we were ill or not. There were too many fears and uncertainties attached to have every aspect of our lives upended for those days that had no clear ending in sight.

Some might say that they only experience rest on a vacation or weekend away and yet, there is inevitably a lot of unrest preparing for the trip and then returning to our lives and schedules again. Some may even feel more tired when they get back home.

Lack of rest not only affects all aspects of our health; it also can cause a distortion in our perceptions of so many things as we stop reflecting in healthy ways and struggle to look at our lives through the light of God. Then we sometimes start adding things we hope or believe will help only to discover they don’t accomplish what we hope they will.

What a conundrum we sometimes face. How do we get off the merry-go-round to find a fulfilling life with the balance that seems to elude us or once we may gain some that we so quickly lose again?

The problem must be more widespread than we might guess since more books are addressing it in recent years.

As believers called to reflect God’s image, what does He point to regarding rest?

I don’t have all the answers, but in the next series of posts I want to share with you some of what I have discovered.

No matter the season or age, we all wish we had more time either to do what we can’t get done or to enjoy the things we have set aside for too long.

“But there is no more time. Time is. It is both infinite and finite. It goes on and on. With or without us it will continue. Our number of days are known to God alone. Time chimes loudly over the roar of our anxious minds, initiating a battle between warring fears and courageous rest.”

Saundra Dalton-Smith, MD