The Gift of Rest
By Dr. Duane Covrig, Professor of Religion, Kettering College
“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”
(Matthew 11:28-30, NASB)
Rest strengthens. Rest calms. Rest works!
This Holistic Health Corner shares different self-care strategies to help us stay healthy. Kettering College has adopted AdventHealth’s CREATION model. The “C” stands for Choice, which was covered in a previous article. The “R” stands for Rest, a vital component to wellness.
Rest comes in several forms and all of them are vital for both personal and community health. Many types of rest are promised in scripture. My favorite is Psalms 127:2: “It is senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, fearing you will starve to death; for God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest” (TLB). Versions translate this last phrase differently: “God gives sleep to those he loves” (CSV) or God gives to them “even while they are sleeping” (ERV). The message is simple. God wants us to rest, he gives rest and he gives great things to us even while we are sleeping. This is true biologically, psychologically, and sociologically.
Christmas is a reminder that Christ is the gift that brings us deep rest. With Jesus’ power and promise, the competency of the Holy Spirit, and God’s eternal character of compassion and faithful love (Exodus 34: 6,7; Ephesians 1: 5, 9), we can come boldly to God to claim this promise of rest. We can come boldly to God’s throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16) to claim many types of rest for our lives:
- Moment-by-Moment Calm: Anxieties, fears, and depression often rob our minds and emotions. These debilitating thoughts, fixations, and addictive brain patterns are hard to rest from. But Jesus can directly calm us or use friends, family, music, counselors, and other professionals to help us find calm in our minds. My friend, Dr. Pamela-Coburn Litvak, a neuroscientist from California, has provided a useful webpage and book on this called Leaving the Shadowlands. Her work is supported by research and has many practical applications.
- Daily/nightly: Through simple habits and routines, we can enjoy 7-9 hours of restful sleep. Roger Seheult’s (an MD with four board certifications) has useful material on his Youtube channel. Start with his short 4 min sleep clip or his 38-minute presentation on How to Improve Your Sleep.
- Weekly: A weekly Sabbath breaks us away from our business and work cycles. Seventh-day Adventists have often championed Sabbath rest and are often willing to share that the risk of taking 24 hours off is more than worth it given its spiritual, mental, and social benefits.
- Monthly/Quarterly: Jesus periodically did retreats for himself and for his disciples. “Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” (Luke 5:16, see also Mark 6:30-32). These were personal or group times to renew, retool, and rejuvenate. These were similar to the impact spiritual feast days or festivals had on Israelites (see Wikipedia’s Jewish holidays)
- Yearly: A ONE-day event a year, known as Yom Kippur, was the holiest day among Jews. It brought the rest of Atonement. It represented a yearly purging and was a Sabbath unto itself, in which work was stopped, regardless of the day of the week it fell on. Taking time once a year to reset our inventory, engage in deep lament and confession, and accept forgiveness is vital for our wellbeing (see Leviticus 16 and 23:26-32).
- Seven-year Sabbaticals: While these rests were for the land (see Leviticus 25) they became strategies to rescue workers from career ruts, strangling routines, and professional dead ends. If more people and organizations practiced these vocational renewals, innovation and imaginations, they would both be more productive and effective. But few people or organizations are willing to trust God with this yoke that makes life easier and lighter.
- Jubilees: These were massive resets God shared with Moses to reboot social and economic processes every 48-50 years. It was designed to give rest to the land, especially the marginalized and foster more egalitarian processes and attitudes. As challenging as the Seven-year Sabbaticals were, very few scholars believe the Jubilee (outlined in Leviticus 25) was ever practiced (let me know if you find otherwise).
- Death: While these previous 7 rests were designed to bring peace and joy to our lives, none of them prevented the inevitable last rest in life: death. John 11 and Biblical views of death speak of this as a “sleep” from which we will be wakened by Jesus at the Resurrection (See Revelation 20), when “Death” itself and “the grave” are forever destroyed (vs 14).
- New Earth/New Heavens: Once death is destroyed, then an eternal rest will be had. John 14:1-3 and Revelation 20-22, speak of this time and space when all things are renewed and are at peace and rest.
- Existential: All these types of rest were designed to overlap and to bring a deep existential rest in God. From moment-by-moment experiences to the final restoration of earth and heaven, we can rest in God.
I believe all these rests were in the mind of the writer of Hebrews 4:9-11, when arguing:
“There remains a {sabbatismos or rest} for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let’s make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience.”
There is an odd effort at work in rest, as one has to choose to “come” to it, but then oddly rest from work. It is one of the mysteries that keep us thinking…a mystery worthy of a good dream tonight.
Prayer: God of rest, give us what we cannot give ourselves. Help us to be eager to enter this rest. Make Kettering College and Kettering Health a place of healing rest for our restless world. For it is true, your yoke is easy and your burden is light.
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