Oh, the concept of dwelling with the Lord. To just sit and rest in His presence. Sounds simple enough right, all you have to “do” is just be. But for me, someone who loves to do life, whether it be accomplishing tasks, going on the next adventure, or spending time with countless amounts of people. I jump at opportunities to explore the world. I’m always down to do life, to get my blood flowing, and to revel in the wonder of it all. I don’t just like to be alive. Now, yes, having a zeal for life and loving to feel alive are wonderful things. But this world runs on balance. Too much of a good thing is well too much. I need to learn how to balance living a wild and reckless life with rest bits and dwelling time set aside.
Life on the boat has well pretty much forced me to dive into learning the art of resting. I went kicking and screaming, let me tell you. We have plenty of free time even with a full ministry schedule, and there are not the usual distractions that you would typically find in the US. No phones, no TV, no transportation methods, no nothing. Sometimes the only movement is the duck diving for fish. You either rest here or you go crazy.
My enneagram 3 tendencies love to do do do, play play play, sleep hard, and repeat. But the Lord calls us into resting too. We all need to rest even if it is far from our nature.
Your body needs rest, your mind needs rest, your spirit needs rest.
Resting is a time of preparing, preparing for the next things to come. I love looking at it like prep time, a time to gear up and get ready. A time to let the Lord speak clearly to you.
I have been working my way through the “Torah” books and am reading in Exodus right now. This verse jumped out at me and hit me in the face. It’s a shut the front door kind of verse.
Exodus 14: 14 “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
I am strong and capable. I can somewhat fight for myself. And I like it that way: self-reliant, independent, and able. But how much better can the Lord fight for you? The all-powerful, mighty God of the universe. What a promise, that this powerful being will fight on behalf of finite humans, like us. And all we are called to do is to be still, to be still before our creator.
How humbling. I want to do it all, accomplish it all, and fight all the way to victory for myself. But it does not work that way. That’s how you burn out, fizzle out, and become so ever weary. The Lord loves to move when we are still.
Here are some keys I have found useful to step into resting with our Father:
1) Find a peaceful location, somewhere that isn’t too distracting (the roof of a boat in Bolivia works well).
2) Quiet you mind. For me, I have to clear my mind of possible things to do. I have to stop making a to-do list in my head.
3) Ask the Lord to focus your thoughts on Him, on beauty, on truth.
4) Be ready to stay there for long periods of time. Ready your heart and mind to be
still.
5) It will come easier and easier the more you practice.
6) Don’t make yourself weary of dwelling. If you have had enough, move on and do something else. You can encounter God in many different ways.
I have to be careful of two things when I step into rest. One, that I do not turn it into an item on my to-do list. Two, that I do not use it as a means to justify laziness. Work when you need to work, play when you need to play, and rest when you need to rest. It is as simple as that.
I’m now setting aside being a Human Doing to move into being a Human Being. And I am actually really enjoying it! Bye for now, I am going to dwell with Abba.
PS- I have some crazy news. A girl that I went to high school with is here in small Trinidad doing an internship with Samaritan’s Purse. What a small world!
