Do you know how to rest? I typically write about running your race and finishing well. To do either one, however, rest is required.  It is a little different than collapsing in exhaustion. How do we do that? Perhaps change our focus from what needs to be done to what is?? Put your feet up and get engrossed in a book? Take the time to be truly thankful. Take a long bike ride in the country? Go swimming?

Do you, like me, feel a little delinquent when you’re not working? We need not do so. The Bible is clear about the importance of rest whether we are or not. God set the example by resting on the seventh day, and then He even made it a command! Are you old enough to remember when all stores were closed on Sundays and lawn mowers were quiet? What was commonplace then can now be achieved individually. I have a dear friend who has learned to observe a mid-week Sabbath by turning off her devices and resting at home. She is the most peaceful person I know.

  • Exodus 34:21 Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you  shall rest.  In plowing time and in harvest, you shall rest.
  • Psalm 127:2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
  • Matthew 11:28-30  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,  for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The summer season is one to savor, an opportunity to explore God’s glorious creation, and learn to rest.  According to our local school system, however, classes will soon resume.  Are you a little startled? Let’s finish this summer season well. What can you only do in summer? Water ski? Hike? Go crawdad hunting? Swim laps outside for your exercise? Do you remember playing outside until bedtime? Eating watermelon and spitting the seeds at one another? Now,  my joy is the flowers that bloom . . . cascading petunias and colorful zinnias. With temperatures often over 100 degrees, Dan and I have begun taking our walks at sunrise. I had no idea what beauty we had been missing. What a glorious time of inhaling God’s art work! How might you enjoy his handiwork and rest?

PRAYER: May each of you be blessed by contemplating the beauty of the summer season—the colorful flowers, the delicious fruit, the freeing warmth, and the One who created it all for us to enjoy. May we be thankful and rejoice in our Creator.  Amen