Papers. Tests. Projects.
Emails. Conference Calls. Travel Schedules.
I don’t know about you, but it has been an incredibly busy summer
for me. Several weeks ago I was in a meeting with some co-workers and one of
them mentioned, “Just gotta’ keep swimming!” I chuckled and said “Or
floating…face down…in the water.”
And there were points this summer that that’s how I felt. I
recently moved to a new city, nine hours from my previous life, new
responsibilities, new job, grad school, travel schedules. If you know me well
(and even if you don’t) you have likely heard me talk about how much I love my
job. I really do. But as much as I love what I get to call work, it is still
tiring as I find myself in the middle of a full Summer. In the spring as
things began to pick up with work my co-workers would warn me about the summer
and how busy things would get. Summer is our busiest time of year; an exciting
time and fruitful time for ministry and new adventures around every corner, but
busy nonetheless.
Checking my email is a daunting task on some days because I
simply don’t know where to begin with the replies. Other days, my phone rings
multiple times before I can get my thoughts together enough to simply say
hello. I have racked up some fairly impressive credit card reward points from
my work travels this summer, met some great people, been encouraged by
strangers and co-workers alike, and have been frustrated in feeling like I am
not succeeding at the job I love.
And then, there is grad school. Precious, precious grad
school. I`m truly thankful for the gift of education. I love to learn, I really
do. But at the end of a day filled with interaction and brain overload, the
last thing I want to do is read a chapter in a text book and then write about
it. At the end of the work day, I want to take my pants off and eat a gallon of
ice cream while making my way through every TV series on Netflix. Discussion
boards aren’t my priority, tests seem like a waste of time, and projects seem
like they are more trouble than they are worth.
It feels like it all never stops.
Do you ever feel this way? Are there times in life that it
seems you are on life’s never-ending escalade?
I was reading in Genesis today. Creation is neat.
God creates the plants, birds of the air, beasts of the sea,
and all land animals. The sky, the lights in the expanse—he creates it all.
Then, as the story goes, in his image he creates Adam—he creates man. And after
all this work, he rests.
I’ve heard many sermons about rest and how God rested on the
seventh day, but I never thought about Adam. On Adam’s FIRST day on Earth, he
rested. Isn’t that great news? He was created in God’s image, had a brand new
land to keep, and yet he is created and he rested. Everything Adam is then charged to do comes from a place of rest. Rest becomes the foundation for everything else in his
life. He works, multiplies, plays, and cultivates relationships from a place of
rest. If Adam had a computer and the animals could send emails, his emails,
phone conversations, discussion board posts, tests, and projects would be
coming from a place of deep rest—shown to Adam at the beginning of his
existence.
I`m not very good at resting. If I were the first created
human, God would have had his hands full earlier on than he did with Adam and
Eve I’m sure.
I don’t know how to rest well. But I am going to try to
start by slurping down my iced caramel macchiato on this hot day, while
listening to my guilty pleasures Spotify station and reflecting on how thankful
I am for rest, and how God created rest to be a foundation of everything else I
do in life. By doing my daily activities, whether school or work or play, those
things then become an act of worship because I can do them from a place of
rest, not of running.
And a rested Lindsey, is the best Lindsey—and the best
Lindsey is the kind that I was created to be.
