Rest

Yesterday, I had a surgical procedure. It was an outpatient operation, however to ensure healing, the doctor has called for 4 weeks of rest. What?! He and the nurse both repeated themselves, 4 weeks of rest. My mind being what it is asked them to define “rest”. Essentially, I cannot get my heart rate up, apparently it impedes the healing process.

To be clear, no running, no tennis, no weight training, no taking the dog for a walk, no running on the treadmill. Rest. What in the world can I do? His answer…”rest”. Seriously, this has made me very uncomfortable since the day my surgery was planned. I love all of the things I cannot do. I however, do not enjoy rest. Those things are my rest for crying out loud. 

So I decided I might need some help understanding what exactly rest means. Being a biblical girl, I remember all of the scriptures speaking to rest. Specifically in Matthew 11, “Come unto me all who are weary and find rest for your souls…” Then I got to thinking maybe I don’t even know when I need rest. This imposition of rest is actually a lesson in recognizing what rest actually is. You see Christ’s rest is not a rest from work, but in work. It isn’t the rest of inactivity but of the harmonious working of all of our being working in sync. Our affections, our will, our heart, our imagination and our conscience because each has found in God the ideal synergy for balance and development. 

Often we think of rest as ceasing work or movement in order to relax. The Lord wants to teach us to rest in Him always so we are consistently at rest in all we do. Rest comes from trust in Him, knowing He has our best interest. The rest of the scripture in Matthew 11 speaks to the Lord asking us to take His yoke upon our shoulders, for His way is easy and His burden is light. In my research, I learned farmers who use oxen to plow their fields demonstrate this idea so well. Often they pair up a well seasoned adult ox with a young bull. There is an obvious difference in size but that is their agenda. The larger bull does all of the work though they are yoked together. The younger smaller and weaker bull is to learn from the other. Though he is going through the motions of working, his load is lessened by watching how the more mature bull does it. The young ox watches what experience has taught him, soon he will be teaching the next young one.

One of things I realized is that we must be willing to watch, to hear and understand what our Father is trying to teach us. Even in music, rest is defined as a rhythmic silence. It’s waiting for our turn to have a go. It’s waiting for our next cue from our Daddy in heaven to say “now you may go”. How often do we allow work, family and even our recreation to get ahead of us. We want to manipulate, control, contrive and create the outcome we desire to have. But, what if we could learn to simply trust and rest in the Lord? What if we could silence our minds, restrict our stress, lessen our loads? What if we can allow the possibility that we do not have to cease work or movement in this case but simply invite the Lord in to be bigger than us. To watch as He works so we learn His way. What if we find by allowing Him to bear the brunt, we refresh ourselves and we recover our strength?

So friends, this is my attempt at putting his yoke upon my shoulders. For 4 weeks, I will choose to learn to rest in Him. Though I cannot have physical activity, I will yield to Him in everything else. This is an opportunity to train my mind in “bringing all thoughts captive to Christ”. If He is leading and I trust His lead, there is nothing but rest to be had.