Questions and Answers about “Rest”

PART 3 in a series on discovering life with an anxiety disorder

My counseling session on November 30, 2021 seemed like a question/answer session …and so much wisdom almost entirely ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF REST. What follows here is a summary of the hour conversation. I have paraphrased much of what the counselor shared with me, and quotation marks indicate ideas that I took verbatim. 

After listening to how I was doing — sleeping better (medicine), fewer anxiety spikes (medicine), trying to slowly incorporate activities that bless my soul and don’t just keep me busy….

The counselor then asked what was heavy on my heart at this point.  Mulling quickly over the question I had to admit it was the idea of being on “rest” when being supported financially by churches and individuals to be working.  As a supported missionary, am I not supposed to be earning my keep?

Counselor: When you think of the word “rest,” realize that it does not mean you are being lazy.  You need to rest, recreate, and rejuvenate.  “Don’t think of it so much as resting as much as it is recharging.”

Artwork at Kettering Medical Center, Dayton, OH

Even God “rested” after six days of creating. He set aside that seventh day to be a HOLY day.  A day for the Israelites to remember His power and holiness. Following Christ’s time on earth and sacrificial death, we are told that if anyone enters into God’s rest (depending upon Christ’s work and not our own), he or she is honoring God’s Sabbath rest.  (Exodus 31:13-17; Mark 2:27, 28; Hebrews 4.)

ABOUT REST….

Me:  Even though I have never necessarily had ADD, there are times when I feel that I cannot just sit still anymore.  I have to be doing something. I used to be able to be still….

Counselor:  why do you think that has changed?

Me (after mulling for about half a minute):  I think it’s technology.  I don’t feel that I use technology in silly, wasteful ways, but still, whenever we use technology, we see almost instant results–whether in word processing, spreadsheets, photography, or even games. Technology provides quick feedback, results, production. I think my brain is accustomed now to be busy, busy with expectation of results.

Counselor:  Yes, in the 30s and 40s, when new technology came into our households, the idea was that it would create more leisure time.  But has it really improved our QUALITY of life? We just fill up our days with more things to do, and we have become busier and busier. 

But God is concerned not just with what a person can do or accomplish in a set period of time, but also the quality of well-being and quality of doing that a person can steward.

God has a pacing different from our own.  Why did he choose to send his son to the earth during the time that he did? Why didn’t He send Jesus to the 21st century? With all this technology, surely the message could have gotten out so much faster and further. 

But in the time that Jesus WAS here, he had to walk from place to place.  That was the PACE in which GOD chose for the delivery of His message, the gospel.

This is the same Creator God who after six days of creating the universe with His words alone, stated that He would rest that seventh day.  Why? He is God.  He never tires.  Why did He demand a rest? Why did He set that habit as a holy habit set forth for all time?  Because He wanted to set a PACE.  I do not know all the reasons for this pace, but I know in so many places in His Word, he tells us to REST.

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. ~Psalm 91:1

Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.  ~Psalm 116:7

And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.    ~Exodus 33:14

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat,

he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.   ~Mark 6:31

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.   ~Hebrews 4:9-11

So I asked the counselor, “What is REST exactly anyway?”

Rest, he says, is NOT not doing anything. Yes, there are two “not’s” in that answer.

Counselor:  what is rest for you are those things that make you feel right, that uplift you as a person, that unburden you from the mental and emotional absorption of life.  Rest is having fellowship with yourself and with the Father–that rest is so precious.

So for me, those things would be photography, writing, playing the piano, reading, crafts (crocheting in particular). But for most of these things I have not had the emotional energy to stay focused on any of them lately…. Or another obstacle I run into is that I don’t have an outside purpose for them.  I have taken 100’s of 1000’s of pictures over my lifetime, and what do I do with them? Don’t they need a reason to be? Same with writing.  If I don’t have a readership, why am I writing? If I’m not currently playing for church worship, why practice the piano?

But if I think back to when I started these ventures—decades and decades ago—I did those things because I enjoyed them. Period.  I started taking pictures in 4th grade, just because it was so satisfying.  And writing stories, I always did because ideas and dreams ran through my brain.  Playing the piano–well, that was more my mom at first, but over the years, how fulfilling it has been to play for concerts and choirs, church and worship….

My counselor states that I need to integrate these ventures into my rest and rejuvenation.  These are the things through which my personality and character should shine….or at least glimmer (right now).  What about putting pictures together with words, he suggests.  Actually that is an idea that I have had many times–either in devotional or blog form.  Basically a project, but instead of thinking of doing it for an audience, I need to do it because these are the tasks that are fulfilling.

Do you need to have an outside purpose for your hobbies? No, you do them for the sake of doing them!  When I started taking pictures in 4th grade, it was because I enjoyed doing it….I did not do it for anyone except for me.  “When it’s genuinely yours, you will find you have an audience.”

Then the counselor switched over to the theme of REJUVENATION.

Counselor:  How are you doing with letting go of work and picking up these activities that provide rest and rejuvenation?

I shared with him the next three month’s worth of letting go of several responsibilities.

Counselor: And as you move forward through the three months, you must be careful not to return back to that same pace that has exhausted you.  If you transition back to your ministry, or if you transition to a new ministry, you need to not return to that same busy pace that has brought you here. In the course of picking up new things, keep your schedule to include the rejuvenating integrated soul-activities.

For my counselor, rest also includes finding a place of quiet–usually involving nature–where one can be with the Lord.  An individual should have places to which he/she can go at any point in a week, but then, too, there will be longer trips to bigger places of rest–the mountains, the beach, the lake….

HOMEWORK assigned and completed:

• Read Ecclesiastes
• Listen to “The Warrior is a Child”
• What for me is rest? ….
• Remember, “The totality of time–rest included–belongs to God.”