Day 4: Rest Under the Rest
Do you know how to lie down and sleep?
My boys didn’t. The first night home, Jesse woke up by the devil’s clockwork: every hour, on the hour. Eventually, he learned to separate day from night, stay horizontal, and keep his eyes closed until the sleep kicked in.
Do you know how to lie down and sleep?
It’s a two-level question with the second level murkier than the first. In this second level, it isn’t an exchange of day for night so much as on for off. It’s a question about rest.
Do you know how to rest?
Do you know how to stop working and start playing? Do you know how to leave the piles on the counter and sit down? Do you know how to put your phone away and be inaccessible? Do you know how to stop striving and say good enough? Do you know how to stop talking and start listening? Observing? Do you know how to quit the future and stay in the present? Do you know how to release control and step back?
Do you know how to lie down and sleep?
Yesterday, we brainstormed everything we need a break from. In some cases, the fix is simple and looks like more sleep. A Sunday nap, perhaps. In others, we see how the fix could be a nap, but it’s going to take some doing to get there. Then there’s a remainder, where the fix is going to take way more than a nap because the noise, the work, the problem, the emotion is complicated. Putting a nap on it would just be you lying down and ruminating with your eyes closed.
I’ve listened to this sermon on Work & Rest from Tim Keller after every semester and before every vacation over the last three years. It reminds me that rest is complicated because what keeps us from resting is complicated because what keeps us working is complicated.
Have a listen:
Think of it as a little lecture to ground us in more understanding, and it’s going to feel like a lecture because Keller is dry. He’s also smart. Give him 40 minutes over the course of today (while you fold laundry, drive around in your car, pull weeds, watch water boil), and you’ll find deeper clarity of what it means to really rest. Then, share your main take-away in the comments below!
I’ll start. I don’t keep the world running. So maybe I will take that nap today.
Your turn!
We’re talking rest right now on the blog – what it is, why we need it, and how we get it. If you just jumped in, go to Post 1 to catch up. Sign up for the blogs to go straight to your Inbox so you don’t miss any!
