REST
I have heard it said, “Rest is a serious business in the kingdom of God”
I’ve also experienced the consequences of not resting well over a long period of time, and how much that can knacker a person at a very deep level.
But I’m also realising that the ability to rest essentially comes from a worldview. If you don’t believe that the world is essentially safe and will provide for you - provided you do your bit - then why would you ever rest on it?
I think I grew up feeling that life was about working hard and becoming very good at things and then, and only then, my life would work and I would not be poor or alone. In fact, my biggest fear was probably just being normal.
When I was first prayed for properly aged 35 this chap simply said to me “Jesus come to Jeremy” and at that moment I can honestly say my body was filled with an amazing sense of peace and rest - it wasn’t an emotion it was a physical experience, like nothing I had ever experienced.
I would like to say that the feeling of peace has never left me, but that would not be true. I certainly understand that a state of rest exists and I can experience it. The journey for me has been coming to terms with the idea that whilst the world is no safer than I had thought, I am secure in something much much deeper than I ever realised. I believe that.
One of the first things that happens when I am at rest is that I slow down. I walk more slowly, I load the dishwasher more slowly, I now even type much more slowly than I used to. Sometimes, I’m militantly slow and when I’m walking through a busy city I regularly just stop so that I know I can, that I’m in charge of the pace of my life. I ain’t on nobody’s treadmill!
Resting and living life more slowly has opened up a myriad of new wonders – whilst I do sometimes miss the buzz of swinging from vine to vine, feeling utterly needed and important, I certainly feel better being able to sleep a bit more restfully and experience everything I do just a little bit more as I go along.
