Give It A Rest

As a kid, Saturday morning was the most important time of the week. There was no school, mass, I could wake up when I wanted to, no morning bath, and most importantly, no homework! I could stumble out of bed, dragging my comforter and pillow downstairs, get the biggest bowl in the house, a spoon, a gallon jug of milk, and my favorite cereal, plop down in front of the television and watch Bugs Bunny, Mighty Mouse, Josie And The Pussycats, and other cartoons, eating cereal and slurping the milk in the bottom of my bowl for hours.

By noontime, I was ready for college football. I would go up and change into one of my Ohio State outfits and come down and watch the game cuddled up next to my dad. I would sit back and watch Woody Hayes get furious on the sidelines, my dad would cheer about great plays and complain about referees' calls, my sister would be trying to catch our dogs to put them in dresses and have a tea party, and my mom would be busy preparing us lunches fit for kings. There was nothing particularly spiritual about these times, but it was a wonderful time in my life, nonetheless. We were the Joseph family, living in tensionless harmony.

After the 'big game', me and my friends would get together and play football in the backyard. We would pretend to be Cornelius Green, Pete Johnson or Archie Griffon battling Michigan or Purdue and winning of course. Before we realized it, it was getting dark and it was time to go home. After getting my mom to let one of my friends sleep over, we would play all sorts of games and stay up as long as we possibly could. These were the great days of restful Saturdays.

God rested on the seventh day. He sat back and watched His creation scurry about over the land He made with His own hands. Many people, including myself... especially myself, confuse a 'day of rest' with God's commandment to 'honor the Sabbath and keep it holy'. Going to Church on Sunday mornings is not exactly rest for me. Between having to get two children ready for church, numerous obligations, and the cares of life and marriage, the word 'restful' would not exactly be first on my list of adjectives to describe it.

With most people, vacation is also not rest. When I go on vacation, I usually need another week to recover from my 'restful' time away from the office. As I see it, there are really three big types of rest set out in the Bible: mental, physical, and spiritual. These categories are not clearly defined at all times and they definitely cross, but they are still identifiable.

Mental rest would be the type of rest, where you have separated yourself from the problems, and pressures of everyday life and focused on more pleasant and nonessential matters. Some people escape to their workshop and build things in this time, while others fish to get away. I like sports, but mostly I play my guitar to mentally rest myself.

Physical rest is the most obvious. This rest involves removing yourself from any physical activity. Sleep and lounging around on the couch are the more obvious types of physical inexertion. I like to write and work on my computer and both of these are physically relaxing to me.

Spiritual rest is one of the most overlooked types of rest in our life. I'm reminded of a song by Twila Paris named 'The Warrior Is A Child'. In this song, she says: 'Even soldiers need a quiet place to rest.' Darkness cannot dwell with light, and as a result, we live in a constant battle between the principalities of darkness and the Spirit which dwells within us. Even when we are winning the battle, the war takes its toll on our spiritual body. There needs to be a time when we can get alone with God and enter into the Holy Of Holies. We can enter this type of rest through worship, or quiet times with the Lord.

In the book of Proverbs it says: 'Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.' True rest is in the hands of the Lord. He is the rock in which we can stand on and He is the strong arms that hold us when we are weary.

Finding time for all three of these types of rest is imperative to maintaining sanity. Also, certain types of rest place stress on other types of rest. If I am playing sports, I may be mentally resting, but physically, I am exerting energy. All night prayer meetings rest my spirit, but they too tax my body greatly.

Finding balance even in rest is imperative. Rest is essentially an escape or solace from daily activity. As a self proclaimed workaholic, 'rest' is a word that I am not overly accustomed to. As a result, opportunities to rest are cherished and I look for ways to increase them all of the time: to getting back to sharing my Saturday mornings with my pillow, a blanket, good cereal and Foghorn Leghorn.

-Doug