Soul Rest

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden,

and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you

and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

(Matthew 11:28 – 30 NASB)

I was in the kitchen the other day with my teenage son. He was stirring a pot of rice and I was sorting through the day’s mail. It was a rare, quiet moment in my house when all the other kids were gone, so I wanted to make the most of an opportunity to connect with him.

“Mark, what are you thinking about?”

“Nothing,” he replied. And I knew from the gentle way the word slowly tumbled out, it wasn’t a brush-off. But how in heavens could he be thinking about nothing? I had to know.

“So when you say nothing, do you really mean nothing? Or do you mean you are thinking about something you don’t want to tell me about?”

“No,” he said. “I mean I’m really not thinking about anything right now.”

“How is that possible?” I asked. “Like, you don’t have one thing you are worried about or a conversation you’re rehashing or a bunch of lists you are mentally reviewing in your mind?”

He tilted his head and looked at me like I was one giant unplucked eyebrow. “Ummm … nope.”

Amazing. Truly amazing. And challenging. I think I need to be a little more like Mark when it comes to emotional white space. Although he may be wired with the ability to easily enter into a place of mental rest, God is calling me to incorporate more times of rest into my life. I desperately need them.

Rest sounds so good, but it is difficult for a girl like me. Even when my physical body is at rest, my mind rarely is. Can you relate?

It’s tough. And yet the Bible makes it very clear that we are to make time for rest. More than just physical rest, we need to take a spiritual and emotional rest from going our own way—literally. Once a week, we are to hit the pause button on life and guard a day of rest for our souls. Guard it fiercely and intentionally — even if the demands on our schedules beg us not to.

This is hard for me. I’m not good at pausing and letting my soul enter into Sabbath rest. I haven’t come close to mastering this and I am far from being a Sabbath heroine. But I am a messenger who has been trying to make some imperfect progress in this area. Because I know where there is a lack of Sabbath rest, there is an abundance of stress. And where there is an abundance of stress, there is great potential for me to eventually come unglued.