It's okay to take a break

Hey Friends, I can't believe it has been two weeks since I have sat down to write a post. In some ways it feels like it has been months and in other ways just days! The truth is, I never intended on taking a break, but God has always got better plans. I don't know about you, but I find it really hard to take breaks. I think most of this stems from my health, when you have a chronic illness, you know there will be plenty of times in the year that you will need to rest. It is almost guaranteed that once a month, I will have to stop for some symptom or another. So, when I am feeling well... I am moving at 100 miles an hour. I try to do every single thing I can before I have to take another unwelcome break. This can be a good thing because it means I value my time and I don't take for granted what I can do when I feel more 'well'.

But, in the last two weeks I have started to realise that by being all or nothing with my time, I have actually forgotten what rest really is. I haven't taken an intentional break to rest in a very long time. I just look at rest and taking a break, as something I do when I am having a flare up and then as soon as things seem better, I am back on the crazy train! I wasn't giving myself a break or taking time to truly rest. Sure, I was resting when I had no choice but to... but maybe I need to take more time to rest even when I feel 'well'.

I was listening to a podcast a few weeks back and they mentioned that rest is not just the act of sleeping or watching your favourite show. Okay... so that is a home-truth right there. How many of you deem rest as sleeping or a day on the couch watching movies?? *Raises both hands* I am so guilty of this. You see, rest is so much more than sleep or chilling out on the couch. There are so many areas of our life that need a break and need rest. We need rest physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually, cognitively etc. We need to give not only our bodies a break but also our emotions, feelings and even our brains a break! There are many way to do this and that is really for another post. But, all of this is to say, do we really take breaks? do we know how? and why don't we feel okay with taking them?

God had a plan for me to take a break, not because I was unwell or particularly busy but because he knew I needed it. And in these last two weeks, I have seen that I actually don't take breaks! Sure, I do the whole movie marathon thing, but it isn't a real break. I realised I just didn't know how. I needed to address in my life where I needed a break; was it physical or emotional or spiritual? We so often neglect our spiritual life and we don't see that we need breaks there too. We need breaks from service or we need breaks to actually come and rest under God's wing. We have to refuel. You wouldn't expect a car to run forever on one fill up of petrol, so why do we expect to be able to keep going in life with just one fill-up on God? I have spent the last two weeks in a time of spiritual refueling. I have taken a step back to let everything else in life just be, because in reality, the world doesn't stop just because we stop briefly. Right now, I am recovering from a wisdom tooth removal and I plan on not only resting physically but also addressing where else I might need a break.

So often we feel ashamed, guilty and silly for wanting a break. We feel selfish for it. But we should never feel ashamed that we need rest. We are all human and we were made to work and to rest. God didn't give us the sabbath for fun, but because he knew we would need rest. The world doesn't view rest as a good thing but the world doesn't know what is best for us. God gave us rest and he knows what is best for us. Jesus demonstrated how important time away in prayer and in rest was to his relationship with the father and to his work here on earth. So, take a minute and think about your life, your rest. Do you need a break? If you are wrestling with guilt over resting, tell yourself this truth 'Rest is God-given and I will make time to rest and obey his will for me'. From one friend to another; it is okay to take a break, in fact it's God-given and who can argue with that.

Faithfully,

Becky