Stop, All the Way: The Importance of Rest
“So, what have you been up to lately?”
A question, in all of its varying forms, that I have slowly learned to hate. For starters, my mind always draws a blank, forgetting nearly everything I’ve done within the last 36-hour window. Secondly, it immediately causes a wave of anxiety where I think back to my schedule the last few weeks - what have I been doing? Where have I been? Have I done anything of worth or value or have I just completed New Girl for the fourth time? Do I have anything at all to show for the last few weeks?
I huff out an answer: “I’ve been so swamped at work! So many meetings, I feel it’s all I do! Not to mention my new gym schedule and grad school starting, I just don’t know when I have a chance to breathe!”
Then maybe we schedule a coffee date for two weeks away - or any time in the next month - where I find a day that’s already booked but can squeeze in another thing if I juggle my time well.
This was a typical pre-COVID interaction for me. Constantly filling up my schedule, hanging on to my exhaustion with pride over my overbooked calendar.
But how ironic is it that we’ve even managed to keep ourselves busy in a pandemic where we’ve been forced to stay home?
The same question gets asked. And while our schedules look completely different, that doesn’t mean we’re any less prone to filling our schedules. Just think of all we’ve attempted to do during quarantine:
Getting new hobbies.
All the house renovations.
Baking sourdough bread.
Baking in general (because let’s be real, with several seasons of Great British Bake Off on Netflix, we truly can become the next Great British Baker).
Working out every single day.
Reading five books a week.
Starting a side hustle.
And the list goes on and on.
Our culture’s tendency to glorify busyness and embrace exhaustion has hit new levels. We fill our schedules up with stuff - so much so that we never get a second to breathe. In fact, we tend to consider ourselves lazy if our schedules aren’t completely packed.
Recently, I was on a run and was stopped (ironically) by the stop sign by my house.
“Stop. All the way.”
And that necessary reality hit me like a ton of bricks. Do I ever really stop? Do I ever actually stop all the way? Have I glorified my busyness so much that I’ve pushed God out of my day-to-day life?
The truth is, rest isn’t embraced nearly enough as busyness is glorified.
But God calls us to rest. He doesn’t want us exhausted, overworked and with packed out schedules with little to no breathing room.
God invites us into an extravagant life. One that includes rest.
But in acknowledging our need for rest and acknowledging God’s gift of rest, we also need to redefine it. Because I don’t believe God’s definition of rest is necessarily sitting on the couch all day binging the newest Netflix show. Rest isn’t meant to be legalistic either. Rest is supposed to be breathing room for the soul, engaging in activities that embrace His Presence.
As the Bible Project blog so eloquently stated:
“We take a break from the broken rhythms of hustle and hardship to set aside a time of submission to His rule and enjoyment of His Presence and to extend these things to the world around us. When we observe the Sabbath (day of rest) well, we become little resting places of God’s Presence.”
Rest does not necessarily mean inactivity. If God Himself is dynamic, so is His rest. So rest for us is a break from the hustle and a time to spend enjoying His Presence. It’s creating space to practice for our eternal reality and a time to intentionally stop, and make room for Him in our lives.
So, why is rest so important for us as women?
Neglecting rest rejects God’s best for us
In creation, God showed us the importance of rest by actually resting on the seventh day. Now, did the Creator of the entire universe need to rest? Probably not. But in doing so, He showed us the rhythms of rest He wants us to embrace.
Rest is not meant to be condemning or shaming, because you should be doing something else. It’s meant to come from a place of honoring God, slowing down, and breaking the cycle of the hustle in order to refill your soul and spirit.
You can’t keep giving from an empty cup, and a day of rest (or a Sabbath) ultimately refills your spiritual, mental and emotional cup.
When I don’t embrace rest, I essentially tell God I can do this without Him. When I don’t embrace rest, I miss out on the best that God has for me. I continue to pour out and out without creating a space to be poured in to.
Neglecting rest sets us up for failure
When I keep up the cycle of the hustle and never stop completely, burnout quickly looms on the horizon. Where before long, I’m too burnt out to even think about rest.
I’m not created to do it all, I was never meant to play superwoman. Because I was never meant to be God.
And when I play god, I set myself up for failure. We rest our lives in the unshakable foundation of Jesus - and it’s from Him that everything else flows. When I set myself up as god and play superwoman, attempting to do it all, I set my life on a cracked and shaky foundation.
Rest is beautiful. It’s supposed to bring us closer to Jesus and increase our intimacy and dependence on Him. It’s the perfect place to be, but the hardest place to get in a culture that elevates hustle above all else.
Jesus teaches us how to rest
The beautiful thing about Jesus is He doesn’t just command us to rest and then leave us high and dry without a how or a why. The Scriptures are filled with words that testify to the importance of rest. Jesus Himself would escape the crowds and find time to rest.
“Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.””
Jesus was recognizing that the disciples had a packed schedule. And when you’re walking around with the Savior of the entire world, I can imagine that’s more of a packed schedule than I’m used to.
They were so busy, it says, that they couldn’t even find time to enjoy a meal. So what does Jesus say? Not, “let’s hustle, we can eat something quick while we walk, we’ve got to get to the next town on the list.”
No, instead He invites them to a quiet place for some much needed rest.
Jesus doesn’t want us walking around exhausted. He wants us walking around with our cups full, filled with His joy. And this is what He was trying to get the disciples to understand.
In Matthew, Jesus goes on to show us how we rest:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
When we join ourselves with Jesus, we invite Him to teach us rhythms of grace, peace and rest. We invite Him to show us what rest looks like - and here, it looks like walking with Him. Letting Him guide our lives and direct our steps.
And this scripture takes the legality out of honoring the Sabbath - Jesus’ yoke is easy, He does not want to give us heavy burdens. He’s simply inviting us to walk with Him.
We need to create a margin for rest in our lives. Especially now, as we’re slowly starting to come out of quarantine and things are starting to open up again it would be a disservice to ourselves and God if we slipped right back into the rhythms of hustle.
So, here are five questions to ask ourselves about rest in our lives:
What is restful for my soul?
What does an intentional day of rest look like to me?
What does rest look like that embraces and invites the Presence of God?
What are times of rest I can set in my week?
How do I protect those times?
Rest will look different for all of us, but the heart will be the same: time in union with our Heavenly Father. For some it might be nature hikes, or runs. For others it might be sitting down to read a good book and enjoy a meal with family. For others, it might be disconnecting from your phone for a day.
Whatever rest looks like for you, create a margin for it in your life.
Write some of your responses to the five questions asked above in the comment section below!
