Healthy rest is elusive.
While we may champion the value of it in our lives, we rarely prioritize and achieve it.
It is not that we are secretly opposed to rest, but that other applications of our time feel more active and thereby appear to provide a more immediate return on investment. Whether for work, exercise, or entertainment, we forestall rest in an endless pursuit of ‘more’. Alternatively, when we feel defeated we can spiral into an unhealthy rest that becomes all consuming and stymies our progress.
Ultimately though, we struggle to find rest because we have branded ourselves as both a participant and official. Meaning we are not only attempting to play the game of life (and win), but to scope and define the rules of said game as we go along. This is self-defeating as we inevitably shift the goal line based on our ever-changing perceptions, whims, and insecurities. We therefore are never in a place where healthy rest is a viable option. For as long as we are the sovereign, healthy rest will elude us.
What we require then is an authority who can define the game and thereby free us from our perpetual tail-chasing. Armed with rules and wisdom beyond our limited perspective, we finally achieve the clarity that makes rest viable.
Alas, there remains one final hurdle: obedience. Knowing the right answer is one thing, but living it is another. And it is hard. For we incredibly adept at derailing ourselves.
“For as long, then, as that promise of resting in him pulls us on to God’s goal for us, we need to be careful that we’re not disqualified.”
“So let’s keep at it and eventually arrive at the place of rest, not drop out through some sort of disobedience.”
These verses rightly claim that disobedience can void our access to rest. For when we take action (or inaction) contrary to our design we add unnecessary stress and complexity to our lives. While potentially marginal at first, this stress and complexity will grow with our continued disobedience to become consuming and thereby sideline us from access to peace and rest.
Furthermore, we tend to make life more complicated, nuanced, and personal. We want to believe that we are a unique exception and must therefore singularly discover what our rules are. However, the truth is that life is an open book test - and we are all playing by the same published rules. Our part then is to act in obedience, not constantly redefine the game itself.
Healthy rest is something we all desperately need. We have foregone it in pursuit of more and invalidated our access through disobedience. Maybe it is time to stop trying to solve everything on our own and instead accept the eternal wisdom that has survived millennia of testing. If we can discard our vain efforts to discover our own ‘truths’ we just might be able to grasp the real wisdom that leads to freedom, peace, and ultimately rest.