The View You Actually Need
Sometimes the view you need most is one that looks similar to this: the view from your bed or corner chair. A view pulled back from the screens or the drivers side of your car. A view that implies you’re taking a break, resting your body to recharge your soul. That this day/week/month looks different than the others.
So often we talk about how little time there is, only to get our screen time reports that tell us exactly how many hours a day we could’ve spent differently.
Some days we cry about balance and how unattainable it is while commenting and engaging on far too many posts and stories, watching videos that entertain but leave our to-do lists undone, our hearts crying for rest.
Why can’t we find balance?
Why is rest so elusive?
Why can’t we put down our phones?
When you rest, rest fully.
Go in head first and don’t look back.
Commit without regret.
Rest is ordered, important and Biblical.
Rest is what keeps your soul tied to the right places, rather than chaotically stretched too thin in all directions.
Rest doesn’t have to mean a nap or a weekend without plans, but it should be days, weeks or months that look different from the others.
Rest is what reminds us why the busy days are worthwhile.
Rest teaches us what we fight through the harder days for.
Rest is not simply the trendy thing to do because self-care is the new word. Self-care is trendy because as a society we have reached the end of being able to be at the end of ourselves.
Rest is holy worship.
Rest is something you simply can’t afford not to do.
Sabbath is something I’ve grown quite passionate about. It took a month long Sabbatical almost a decade ago, and a lot of nudges on my heart for God to teach me the deep value of Sabbath-rest. If you’ve been running and running, always wishing for the list to get shorter, for the next season to be slower or for life to simply lighten…but it never seems to happen, consider implementing Sabbath once a week. It will pay dividends and your capacity, somehow, grows.
If it feels impossible to give up time (and believe me, I get it!), let me issue a challenge: Give it a try for six weeks. A full day of task-less living for six weeks straight and see how your life shifts.