Choosing Rest

Sometimes I wonder about how got to be the way we are with regard to our work lives in the United States.  When we travel to Europe, I am always enchanted by the mindset behind their work lives and vacations, how Europeans are committed to work during their working hours but are committed to their life outside of work when they are off the clock.  Some days I feel like I crave that type of healthy boundary between work and rest or work and play, but it doesn't really seem like we are set up well for that in America. 

I remember being shocked to learn in one European country that we traveled to several years ago that they took an entire month off from work to enjoy summer on the coast. A whole month! Companies in the United States would never even consider this-- the CEOs would have a coronary because they would lose 1/12th of their multimillion dollar salaries.  Meanwhile their employees would come back likely more productive than before they left because of their month of laying in the sun, spending time with their loved ones, playing and laughing, and allowing their creativity to run wild while they rest their brains from the crunch for productivity and meeting expectations. 

I crave rest in my life, and I often wonder if rest isn't something we all crave. I think that this longing and craving of rest is Biblical, that God designed us to desire rest in our lives. God is truly the Creator of rest-- He spent 6 days creating all that we seen in creation, the trees and oceans and animals and people.  But on the 7th day, He rested.  And it wasn't because He needed rest-- He has no needs, yet He modeled rest for us.  And if the God of the universe can take a day to rest, well why in the world would I think that I shouldn't? It's a little conceited for me to think that I don't need rest or that I don't have time for rest.  It's like I have a fear that the world won't keep spinning on its axis if I take a day off-- like me choosing to go, go, go all the time somehow keeps my tiny part of the world in motion.  Would a day off once per week really be catastrophic?  Sure, I might need to choose a different day to do laundry, grocery shop, and clean the house.  That wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.  I think taking time to rest gives our brains room for doing things we really love and enjoy-- and those things aren't always the same things we fill our 9-5 lives with.  

Some systems in our country do not set us up well for rest. I work in healthcare, and even though people cover for us when we are out and I am supposed to be able to carve out time to rest, I find that this is sometimes hard to accomplish.  There is such pressure in healthcare for us to be "on" all the time. I don't know that this is realistic for healthcare workers, especially if you consider the horrors and stresses that many have endured over the past two years.  Yet no matter your profession, I don't think that it's realistic for us to remain functioning at such a high capacity at all times or to expect that of others around us.  And I think we've got to find ways, no matter where we are and what our jobs are,  to choose rest when the world around us keeps whizzing past.  

I don't know what choosing rest means for you, but it might look different for each of us. Maybe you're a busy mom juggling the schedules of your children while trying to fit some work into your spare hours of the day, and maybe rest just comes in the form of your morning cup of coffee before every is awake for the day. Some days, for me, it's digging in the dirt in my balcony garden after work.  Other days, it's just cracking a book open for a few minutes before my eyes close at night.  But I'm slowly learning that choosing rest is important because if we don't, I think life will put us flat on our backs so that we are forced to rest. Maybe in a hospital bed, maybe in bed with a cold, or maybe with an injury from overworking our bodies and not giving them the rest that they need. 

What does rest mean for you, and how do you plan on choosing it this week?

Love,

Cristina