Rest is best

After hearing indistinct voices and the closing of multiple car doors, I awoke and looked at my phone to see the time. It was 2:38am. Though this may sound very early, it indicated to me that we were running late. We were supposed to have awakened 2 hours earlier! Three other guys and myself had planned on hitting the trailhead by 1am. We had a 7 mile hike / climb ahead of us before we would reach our first of two summits and needed to make sure we were down below tree line well before the forecasted afternoon rains. Because we had somehow overslept, I was unsure of how our plans might be affected. It was in this brief panicky moment that I saw a picture of my own life.

The previous three days had been pretty action-packed. We had traveled many miles, trekked to some amazing heights. We were sore and fatigue from our first few hikes, and this looked to be our most challenging climb. We needed to get up super-early to accomplish the task before us. Instead, we overslept. This situation felt familiar. I often find myself thinking the same kind of things in my weekly schedule. "We better start moving, keep on doing, work a little harder, or else goals won’t be met."

The irony I discovered later on that afternoon is that an extra two hours of rest is just what we needed. We hit the trail as refreshed as we could be, given our situation; we moved briskly and purposefully with a steady pace. It seemed the time of rest had brought a sense of urgency. And believe it or not, we not only summited both peaks, but we made it back down in time for lunch – aka, way ahead of schedule – the original schedule. Rest was best.

I thought that our late start would be detrimental to our plans, yet rest was on our side. It was almost as if the Lord had caused our alarms to fail or our ears to not hear. Not that He had our summiting accomplishment in mind. I’m not sure The Lord is all that impressed with our amateur mountaineering skills, but I’m quite certain He wanted me to see the shadows those mountains cast that afternoon. For I have approached the past few seasons of life with an attitude similar to what I initially expressed that morning. “I must get up early for this, stay up late for that, push a little bit harder, for just a while longer…”

Yet what I learned is that the same things not only get completed with rest, they can be done well and accomplished with a better attitude when one has rested. Now, you must know that I’m referring to far more than just physical rest. Sleep and relaxation are good; they are blessed and necessary. But there is a rest that cannot be found in a Sunday afternoon nap or in a weekend spent lazily reading from a hammock. And this rest is for every soul that’s weary. It’s for the saint that is sinking; it’s reserved for the prodigal that has turned back home. It is this rest that I need. It is this kind of rest that your innermost requires as well.

Friends, my focus has been blurry here lately. I’ve looked too much to what I’m doing and when I’m doing it and less upon why this striving ought to be desired and how this pursuit is even made possible. If the Spirit of Christ and the power of His resurrection are not the very things that propel me forward, then I’m missing it. If I fail to rest in the finality and sufficiency of His atoning work on the cross, any alleged victories are merely claimed in vain. Godly rest in Christ produces a genuine sense of rejuvenation; it refreshes and fills us; it emboldens us with a sense of urgency; it reveals that our days are fleeting and to be lived for something more.

Lord, help me to slow down. Father, help us all to long for more than a Saturday of sleeping-in. May we want more than a mere extended vacation. God, allow us to rest in You. Open our spiritual eyes to see the goodness of godly rest. Help us see its availability and abundance. Rest is best! May we hear it, believe it, and experience it today, for our joy and ultimately, for Your glory.

Matt Fowler
Associate Pastor of Missions & Students
matt@nbchurch.info
@fattmowler