It used to be so easy to rest, back in those days when “recess” was our favorite subject in school, or when Friday was our favorite day of the week because we’d finally have a hard-earned weekend to indulge in a lazy Saturday afternoon.
Yet have you noticed how many people today find no more satisfaction in the simplest activity of all? We get anxious with our vacant hours and we try to fill our days with as much activity as we can just so we can avoid that time when we have nothing to do but be with ourselves.
I recently had colds and it necessitated a leave from work as well as a leave from the many activities I enjoy, including writing. How I prayed that it be over, how I desired to get back to my normal routine. But the body it seems, knows when to go on and when to take a pause, when to wake up, and when to get some time to sleep. It’s the rhythm of life, the ebb and flow, the natural course of nature that keeps everything in balance, and that makes everything fresh and renewed.
But why the unnatural response from many of us? Why the difficulty in surrendering to rest?
1. We’ve lost our ability to wait.
The modern times have provided us with so many tools and gadgets we need that make our life easier. It has enabled us to do things in an INSTANT, in a single click of a button. We do things real FAST!
Rest is waiting. It is downtime, a healing time both for the body and the spirit. We just couldn’t accept the fact that we are not after all as perfect and as powerful as we thought we could be, that we can be on the go 24/7 much as we wanted to.
2. We’ve lost our ability to trust.
Rest and healing is doing nothing necessarily active on our part, but trusting that our body knows what it is doing to repair itself, to grow, maybe even to be better than before. We believe that only our conscious efforts can accomplish something, and if we’re not doing anything therefore, we’re already doomed! We don’t trust anybody, not even our own body when we know we are not consciously in control.
3. We’ve lost our ability to receive.
Our culture has impressed upon us the necessity to give; giving is a concrete sign of being alive, of being of value. When we are not able to give or to do anything productive, we quickly lose our self esteem. Our self worth is so connected in doing what we do, that when we’re unable to do anything, we feel empty and worthless inside.
We do not realize that receiving is also an integral part of being. Receiving is actively cooperating to the one healing us, actively acknowledging that we are worthy of help, of being assisted in times when we couldn’t help ourselves. Receiving is honoring ourselves as being worthy of notice and honoring others as being able to endow upon us something that is an important part of themselves. Receiving, like giving, is being able to share and be a channel of the flow of life.
I’ve learned that even times of sickness and unproductiveness can teach us something. I’ve learned that in times like that, it’s quite okey to wait, to trust the way of life, and to receive healing from the God who never abandons us whether we’re living our lives energetically, or whether we’re merely trying to while away our time sneezing and teary eyed in the comfort of our cozy beds.
The thing about hope is that it’s a positive force that shines the most when it’s dark. When everything’s going well, we hardly notice it’s there. But when things go against us, when our dreams fade and when we see no immediate reprieve from our troubles, that’s when hope does its best work for us.
"Where Hope Can Be Found"