Rest Begins

Rest begins with things undone.

I sit down and every undone task joins in a Siren call:

Rest is better when everything’s done! Just another hour…
This unproductive moment will cost you later!
Have you really earned a whole day off?

With practice, I learn to respond (with gusto!):

Why, yes. Yes I have! And anyway, rest is not earned, it is given. Grace for the mighty and the lowly alike.

With practice, the song is muted into whispers… and fades into a thought for another day. A skill well worth the practice. Take that, little singing whispers!

Rest begins as a lifeline.

The tyranny of the urgent calls, and I have grown so used to being flung back and forth that it feels wrong to be still. I have learned to see only what demands attention, ignoring the peace that is within reach. Once again, I fall victim to those little task-Sirens.

The one who shouts the loudest wins! Rest, a gentle soul by nature, refuses to shout.

Will I listen to the silence?

Rest begins to draw out humility.

Fenced in by six days, work cannot define the seventh. But oh, how empty the house feels without my trusty whispers! They prop me up all week long with kind assurances of my value and superior contributions.

Today, if only for the sake of obedience, I allow myself to fall out of their clutches and into the embrace of the Definer of Reality. One day a week I must dig deep and re-discover the Work that has already been done.

It turns out to have very little to do with me.

Rest begins on level ground.

Perhaps we cannot rightly experience the community of God without rest, without a place to surrender our titles and enjoy the future bliss of heaven together.

The free, the servant, the woman, the man, the foreigner –
all are human, after all!
The CEO, the janitor, the teacher, the laborer, the minister –
all are human, after all!
The single, the parent, the spouse, the friend, the child –
all are human, after all!

Our relationships need a break from the overwhelming anthem of role and status. So, one day a week let us cease to size each other up from the pits and pedestals of society. Childish pastimes aside, perhaps we will find a new perspective.

We all rest upon the level ground of humanity.

© 2019 Jacqueline Tisthammer. All Rights Reserved.