Taking some down time today was so
needed. Rest is such an important part of life. I feel like I have lost sight of
that fact. God even rested…. Literally…the Creator of the universe rested. He
created for six days and then for an example to us, rested on the seventh day.
Why do I have such a hard time staying still and resting? I have this feeling
that I should be doing something at every second of every day. I think being a
missionary has only amped that thought in my mind. We have been working hard
here at the orphanage. The guys have been out digging huge rocks out of the
ground by hand then loading them into a trailer and hauling them back to the
shore. I have to be honest; I have never felt more like a Neanderthal in my
life! My hair is a little unruly, my beard is growing at a staggering rate, I
haven’t showered in a couple days and I am digging up rocks with my bare hands.
We are attempting to build a retaining wall because they have some serious
erosion going on here. On the days that we are not digging boulders out of the
dirt we are loading the trailer with sand that is used for the concrete work on
the house we are building. It has been so good to use some of the construction
knowledge I have picked up over the years of doing grunt labor on different
construction crews and doing different odd jobs with my Dad…thanks Pa!
I have
to tell you that resting is such a good, biblical thing to do. It gives you
time to think, pray, read God’s word, breathe, thank God for what he has done,
process things, recharge, cry out to God…. (Fill in your need here.) Jesus even
withdrew from the crowds to get away for rest, prayer, and time with the
Father. If you haven’t had some rest in a while make some time for it soon. If
you are saying to yourself as you read this… “I can’t rest! I have so much to
do!” then maybe you should scoop some stuff off of your plate. Take some time
to evaluate if all the “stuff” you have to do is actually necessary or even
worth it. Create some margin in
your life. Take some time out for the people you love, the things you love to
do, the project that you have wanted to start, to spend time with the kids, to
read more of the Bible, to really pray through some decisions. I promise that
you will not regret it.
I bet you are still wondering what
in the world my title is all about. It actually ties in with this day of rest.
Bri and I were able to watch a Francis Chan message on our laptop. He talked
about the church looking more like a lecture hall rather than a lab class, and
this shouldn’t be the case. Being not to far removed from the classroom I could
totally relate to this analogy! I mean the lectures were great and all but who
didn’t love getting to lab and lighting stuff on fire, mixing dangerous chemicals,
and dissecting animals that smelled like an old shoe? Don’t get me wrong we definitely
need the teaching and preaching of God’s Word in our churches. On the other
hand we should be taking that knowledge into our world and working it out in a
very hands on way. The church in Acts was just a bunch of Christ followers who
got together, heard God’s Word, prayed like crazy, were empowered by the Holy
Spirit and then went out into their world and acted like Jesus. They loved,
served, gave, and learned together. They met the real needs of people. They
declared the saving power of Jesus everywhere they went. They took the material
that they learned in the lecture and put it to work in the lab. That’s what I
want my faith to look like. I want a faith that works; a faith that moves to
action lead by God’s Spirit.
