It’s no secret that I crave adventure. It’s also no secret that I have been plagued with monster migraines. So when the two collide it feels like I am keeping myself from myself. When I signed up for The World Race, obviously the primary goal was following the voice of the Lord in the direction He was leading me, but a major perk was the adventure. I mean, it’s with an organization called adventures in missions.
So far the race has reaped an abundance adventures, from making coffee over an open flame to bungee jumping, and everything in between. In other great news, the first two months of the race I was migraine free! PRAISE. Come Vietnam, however, I had a kick butt headache from the time we got into the country. It built up as the days went on, I took some medicine to try to get it to pass, but to no avail it got to where I could no longer do ministry with the headache. I stayed home one morning, and then tried to go to ministry in the afternoon, but our ministry this month is working with children – and while it can be great, it’s no fun making them laugh when it physically hurts you! So the next day I stayed home all day, thankfully the next day was our off day! However, coming into Vietnam we heard about the Chu Chi Tunnels and I was super looking forward to them, and the team was planning on going that off day. We had to book the tour the day I stayed home, so I opted to not go and give myself a full day off.
I knew I would hate missing out on the experience, but I didn’t know how much.
The worst part was that the next day, I woke up almost headache free! (while that is a good thing, I had no reason to stay home). So my team left for their tour, and I got up and got a smoothie. My stomach was bothering me for the past couple days which I chalked up to the medicine/migraine, but it was still a little upset that morning… so it’s probably a good thing I didn’t go to the tour. However, as I laid in my hammock – which I have hung from my bed in the hostel this month – I was genuinely upset that I was laying around while my team was on an adventure.
You need to rest.
This is a sentence I’ve heard from the Lord a lot in my lifetime, and usually I end up sort of resting, but I realize there is a difference between an off day and a rest day. A key I’m finding with The World Race is that we have to figure out what it means to find rest in Him. I cannot write this blog and announce that I have a full understanding – or really much of an understanding – in how to rest in Him. The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know! On this particular (forced) rest day, I could have looked into what it means to rest in Him. I caught up in Shondaland instead… which was oddly refreshing. I don’t watch much TV, Grey’s Anatomy is one that I keep up on though. So when I had a day of nothing, with pretty good internet, and I had a VPS so I could trick the internet into thinking I was in the US I got caught up on Grey’s.
At the end of the day, when I thought back on the day I thought I missed the point. I used a full day off and wasted it on HULU. I was then disappointed in myself for waisting my day off.
Do you feel rested? The Lord asked. Well yes, I do actually. I thought to myself. Maybe resting in Him doesn’t mean reading the Bible and spending the day in prayer. Maybe resting in Him means listening to Him when he says STOP, SLOW DOWN, GO. Resting can even look like going on an adventure, but ultimately sustaining the work we are doing for Him, means listening to Him.
