How Do You Find Time For Rest?

PASTOR JAE HONG

When we think about it, finding time is a strange notion. It is not like we can go search and find a lost piece of time in between the couch cushions. Time is static, but our perspective can make a moment of time more meaningful. Think of that one person you meet with and have that life-giving conversation. That hour of time spent with that loved one surely feels more valuable than the hour spent with the TV trying to fall asleep. So then the deeper question to consider would be “Am I spending the most time on what is most valuable to me?” Before you go down your rabbit hole of all the obligations and responsibilities you have to rationalize why things cannot change (and notice that was an emotional reaction?), let’s look at it through a Christian perspective.

If worship literally means “worth-ship,” then what we worship is what we give our time and attention. If we take inventory of what/who we give ourselves to, does it align with who you feel called, or even want, to be? Our Christian belief is girded by two pillars that cannot stand on its own: justification and sanctification. Justification is our recognition that Jesus is our Savior. He rescues us and deems us worthy through Him alone. Sanctification is declaring that Jesus is our Lord. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we live each day, actively modeling ourselves to be more like Him. It would be lovely if the power of justification overwhelms and blinds us on a dusty road to change our name to Paul, but it is also Paul that steadfastly reminds us through the Epistles of the disciplines to become more like Jesus. Paul is consistent in using the imperative to command and compel us to put off our old selves and put on our new selves each day. Often, and more substantively so, growth happens through an upkeep of making the same decision each day to say “I will follow Christ today.” The theological word for this decision is repentance – the literal idea of stopping something that is missing the mark of our core beliefs and going the opposite way.

With this in mind, rest is not a break from our daily patterns to give us the energy to spin that hamster wheel one more time. Rest is the concerted choice to turn our eyes back to our birthright, to be the person your heart is silently screaming you to be. It is ironic that we need to physically exercise for our bodies to experience the peaceful rest it is capable of. Resting from exercise is the very thing that elicits our feeble attempts at restoration to be shallow and unsatisfying, like breathing air that does not have enough oxygen – it just makes us gasp for more, becoming increasingly unsatisfied with every attempt until we give up thinking that is all we deserve.

This is, in essence, what I remind people everyday as an oncology social worker. The unexpected diagnosis, complemented by the unknowns filled with the darkest of expectations, tries to take the throne of their hearts and minds. I avoid the knee jerk reaction to tell them it will be okay. Through the therapeutic relationship, I gently hold a mirror to show them a reflection from an angle that the horse blinders of anxiety have made invisible. I show them, through their words, feelings, and tears, that the throne of their heart and mind cannot be taken over, only handed over. I walk alongside them to find ways to rest, to realign their eyes to their most valued treasures and let that be the manual to find rest through their storm. Slowly, the deafening storm quiets down, not because of treatment results, but because the smallest candle made bright in the lightless room chases out the darkness.

My friends, as we wrap up the Lenten season, I pray we do not see rest as a function, but as the form, the posture, of greater freedom in Christ. Spend time with Jesus and sit at His feet on the throne of your heart. What is He telling you? How do you need to rest, to be more like the child in the center of His heart? What does He want for you? How does he rejoice over you? Where is He grieving with you? What is the narrow road to be taken to know God not just as Lord and Savior, but as abba? I pray we build the courage, the strength, and know the freedom of climbing up from Jesus’ feet to the cradle of His arms, in just the place He has been holding for us all along.