Working from your Rest

Rest Day. As an active human being, rest days were hard for me at first. I always want to be doing, doing, doing and just keep on doing. I once heard a speaker boast on not seeing himself as a "human being" but a "human doing." I thought that was cool and immediately applied it to my own life. Mistake. A group of friends that I meet with on Monday nights has been reading through a book that is all about discipleship. Typically, i'm skeptical about any leadership or "do it better this way" books that come my way because there seems to be way too many books out there for any one of them to be the right way. Yet this book has proven me wrong and has some intense wisdom that is sometimes difficult to swallow and even more difficult to apply. One of the ideas the authors flip around is that we tend to rest from our work, not work from our rest. They draw the example that while God indeed completed creation in 6 days and then rested on the 7th, our FIRST day was also that first day of rest. After that, we were given our responsibilities and duties as garden caretakers. Fast forward to now, and we treat rest as a somewhat-necessary aspect of life. We sleep when we're tired, we stop when we crash, and do not make an over-reaching effort to plan rest into our lives. Not a good thing. For all intensive purposes, we were made to rest. Our bodies respond well to rest, to sleep, to spending time just being. So our good book authors lay out this plan to change the attitude towards rest: work FROM your rest. That means that your rest is your springboard, not your stretcher. Instead of recovering, you are preparing to move forward. It is profound in the understanding that it now makes my "day off" my "active resting day." The obvious question in all this is, "well, what counts as resting?" So we talk about the idea that rest doesn't always mean that you're just on your duff sitting around, but that you are recreating. Let's break that word down: re-creating. It is time spent starting back at the beginning. Letting your soul and body heal in the ways they need to. For me, prayer and time with my Daddy are the best things i can do to re-create my own self. To get in touch with my Father in Heaven means getting a little headspace in a way that most people don't really see as resting: I put on my shorts and t-shirt to exercise. Whether it is running, lifting weights, Crossfit, swimming, stretching, or just a good walk in the woods this is the place where i inhale my Papa's presence and spend some time with Him one on one. A great many discussions can happen during this communion and carry me through my day. I've been actively engaging God in this way for several months now, and i cannot even begin to tell you what it has done for my relationship with God. My time with Him is precious and i wake up ready for it, ready to engage with Daddy time. Some people do great with a good book or journal, their bible and a quiet room. This kid does better with a barbell followed by eggs and a Bible. It's how i've been created. On the end note, today was one of the full rest days, physically and spiritually. No weights, just a light walk and some stretching while listening to worship music. Tomorrow i am ready to resume training for this life and to continue again with getting to know my Pappy better than i did today. His presence is what i crave.