What Does It Mean to Rest and What Does That Look Like in My Life?
I feel like the most unqualified person to write about rest. Honestly, I find it hard to stop sometimes. When thinking about spending time to relax and have fun, I can often have in my mind the next project or thing on my ‘to do’ list and weighing up in my head if it would be better for me to knock another thing over instead.
I can start on a task, then easily get sidetracked because of the connections one task has with the other, or I notice something needing to be done in the area I’m working on, and the next minute I’ve got 10 things on the go at once! I am a finisher though, and one by one those things get completed.
I want to hone in on one thing that God spoke to me this month.
“Rest doesn’t mean stopping, it means positioning. Are you straining or allowing/enabling things to happen?”
I was instantly reminded of my visit to the physio when I was trying to activate my core. Not only was my core tight but I was tightening my neck and many other muscles in my body. Her words to me were, “Relax!, don’t work so hard, focus on this area”. I started again, being conscious that my head and neck were not doing the work, my core was.
I used to take on many pressures around me, I’d carry them and I would be straining. I was not at rest.
One of our amazing Response Team said to me the other day, “I don’t want to waste my time, this guy is not interested in being saved”. My answer to this is much the same as my physio. Our first role in response is to provide a safe environment for Explorers to engage in meaningful conversation to discover hope and purpose for themselves. The best place to be is at rest, and focus on the area that is presented to us. If Explorers aren’t interested in anything to do with Jesus then my advice, we only talk about Jesus when the timing is right. Focus on what is presented and be an encourager.
Remember rest doesn’t mean stopping, it means positioning to enable things to happen 😀.
Love Morag and the Roaring Hope Team
