What is good rest?
Monday 17th February 2025 10:47
Are you tired? Worn out?
Come to me. Get away with me. I will show you how to rest.
Walk with me, work with me – watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.
Because I have been ill lots of people have been asking me “Are you resting?” But I think the question is What is good rest? There seems to be growing agreement that our wellbeing includes five areas, namely Spiritual, Thinking, Emotional, Physical and Social wellbeing and so it makes sense that there will be five different answers to the question what is good rest?
I guess these answers are different for all of us but for me
- Spiritual rest includes weekly worship, daily bible reading and prayer
- Mental rest includes uninterrupted deep work or reading a book
- Emotional rest includes holidays, gardening or being 5 minutes early on a trip
- Physical rest includes a night’s sleep or an evening of TV
- Social rest includes a meal with family or a discussion in Alpha or home group
I usually try to do a habit swap in lent. To swap a bad habit for a good one. It might be as simple as swapping confectionary for yoghurt and fruit, or swapping wine for hot chocolate. This lent I think I am going to try to go for a 30-minute walk three times a week.
So, let’s try to discover what is good rest for each of us and to embed it in our lives over the 40 days of lent. So that as we walk with Jesus and work with Jesus we will learn the unforced rhythms of grace.