3 minute read
Learning To Rest
from May 2020
by Susan Lavigne
Do you ever feel like you can’t slow down? You have 101 things on your “to-do” list, and you are already running behind. You have said “yes” to too many activities. Maybe you feel like Bill Watterson, who said, “God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I am so far behind that I will never die!” Then, something happens in your life that slows you down.
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Learning to rest has never been easy for me. My family valued performance and achievement. Actually, having a strong work ethic has served me and the companies I worked for very well. However, sometimes it felt like my whole self-worth was wrapped up in what I did instead of who I was. So, if I wasn’t performing well or achieving something, my life didn’t seem to have much meaning. By the grace of God, I have achieved a lot in my life. Right out of college, life was moving forward fast, working as a physical therapist in a privately owned orthopedic clinic. Yet, a short two years later, at the age of 29, I injured my back and was out of work for several months. I went from helping others to needing help. Very depressed, I thought, “If I couldn’t work, who was I?”
I wonder sometimes if others don’t feel the way I do. We are so caught up in our roles (like employee, parent, caretaker, etc.) that we forget we are loved by God for who we are and not for what we do. We forget that God loves us because He created us. So, even if I cannot work or achieve something academically or socially or athletically, I should still remember that I am loved by God. This has been a difficult lesson to learn, especially in my quieter seasons.
Throughout my 30-or-more years of employment, I have experienced a number of quieter times where I felt God speaking to me from His Word. “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). My initial response was, “God, I don’t do ‘still’!” However, that is when He also reminds me that it’s more difficult to hear His voice if I don’t slow down long enough to listen. Over the last three years, I have been experiencing a quiet season, “stilled” by chronic pain and
by the loss of employment, but I have truly experienced “knowing God” more during this time than any other time in my life. God created the Sabbath for man. He created it for a purpose—for both our enjoyment and rest. Yet, even more, the Sabbath is meant to quiet ourselves before God and experience His presence. I hope that you will take some time to learn to rest in God’s presence today.
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