Do I have malaria?
No.
Sorry to scare you mom.
However, I did wake up today feeling sick, so I stayed home from ministry—and, oh man did God teach me a lesson on resting.
When I finally did wake up, I went to try to eat some breakfast and enjoy the serenity of being by myself for a change (it’s a very rare commodity while on the Race).
During my time sitting down outside the kitchen, staring at the nature right off of the porch, I thought to myself; “well, I’m nine for nine for missing ministry at least once a month due to being sick—it is what it is and it’s not surprising.”
And then God told me an important lesson.
He said:
“Your body is screaming to you it needs rest, and the only way you are listening is when it gets sick.”
Oh boy, okay.
“It’s month 9; you are tired, and that’s okay—you are allowed to be tired.
But… you have to find your rest in Me.
Have you not noticed that some of your best days come right after your sick days? Because you finally rested; and because nothing else was around distracting you, you finally rested in Me.”
Yep… that makes sense. I always knew about the concept of resting in God—“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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—but I rarely applied it on my rest days.
The concept of rest has been something that has been on my mind a lot lately, and I knew about resting in God—but something didn’t click and to be honest, whenever we had rest days I always found other things that I told myself I needed to do first and “I’ll get to ‘Jesus time’ later.” Well, it would become midnight and I would fall asleep—“later” never came.
Week after week.
Heck, I had a meeting with my squad leader, Davante, who is staying with my team this month and one of the first questions he asked me was “how are you?” To which I responded by saying, “I’m tired; unbelievably tired—physically tired; mentally tired; emotionally tired; and spiritually tired” as tears welled up in my eyes.
So we talked about the differences between physical rest and spiritual rest. This was the moment that I finally admitted that, even on my rest days, I was not giving myself spiritual rest and therefore my rest was not able to sustain me throughout the week.
I even had the thought that I could go home and not regret it because I am just plain tired—note: I’m not going home yet.
So where do I go from here?
I look up.
I change my patterns.
I look to Christ.
I stop making excuses.
I find rest in Him.
I persevere—with His help.
I can’t do it alone, and I have to accept that fact.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8
Lastly, I also want to challenge you to come along-side me. If you are tired and feel like you are never getting enough rest. I want you to try going to Christ to find the ultimate rest.
