“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28.
I have been thinking a lot about the idea of rest. To me, the word “rest” has felt like a dirty four letter word. Prior to the World Race, my life moved at an impossible pace. I found safety in busyness. I really struggled to adapt to the slow but steady pace of the World Race.
Throughout the World Race we have grueling days of travel and many new, uncomfortable situations. However, we also have quite a bit of down time. I had no idea what to do with myself when I experienced this downtime.
Over the past several months God has been shifting my focus. Instead of relentlessly pursuing busyness and activity, I am learning the value of rest. I have been learning that rest doesn’t mean just sitting around, looking like the dead guy from Weekend at Bernie’s. I am learning that rest means an intentional retreat inward to seek the presence and safety of our God.
I have recently been practicing this idea of “rest”. I have learned that when I stop and rest, God aligns everything I am seeking. I want to share two recent examples of what I mean by rest. The other day my team and I had some downtime in the morning. I wanted to work out, but I felt like the Lord wanted me to sit and “rest” and spend time with Him.
I listened to music and read my Bible. I was filled with peace. About two minutes after I finished this rest period, one of my teammates came up to me and said, “Hey, do you want to work out?”
The other example of rest occurred today. My team and I are staying in a hotel with a gym. The gym has free water. I don’t have a lot of money, so I was looking for someone to let me into the gym to get some water. Instead of running around looking for someone, I stopped and started to sing a worship song. I just started singing, and I reminded myself of God’s presence. Right after I started to do this, a hotel employee appeared in front of the gym, and she opened the door for me.
We often try to muscle our way through life and push things into place. I’ve been guilty of this behavior for years. It’s surprising and freeing that there is more power when we rest in God than when we try to do everything on our own. This is just one of many tender, difficult, loving lessons that God is teaching me. I am so thankful God led me to the World Race.
Thanks to your support, I am fully funded for the World Race. Thank you! We will be leaving Malaysia this weekend. Our next stop is debrief in Ecuador. During debrief, we will have team changes. Please pray for team changes and adjustment of being on a new continent. The next 4 months will be spent in South America. I will update you along the way and thank you, thank you, thank you!
