As you think about ending 2020 and beginning 2021, here’s something to consider. Rest to work rather than work to rest! 

Many people take time off work during the holiday season, but many of us don’t know how to rest. I mean truly resting by letting go of the pressures in your mind that you need to be doing something or going somewhere, and simply allowing yourself to be in this moment at this place, letting go of the regrets of the past or the plans for the future and truly enjoying the present moment. We have a really hard time doing that.

On Sunday, we are anxious about Monday because we anticipate having to go back to work. But then on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we can’t be present because we are looking forward to the weekend. And the cycle continues… We are constantly thinking about what’s next or our to-do-list that we never really give our brains the time and space to be free from planning or doing. When we give ourselves the break, we feel guilty for not doing something as if our lives are meant to be consumed by producing. Or when we stop doing, we drown ourselves with social media till we can’t even hear our own voices. I would know I wrote about it here. We don’t rest, and we don’t know how to rest. And we wonder why we are unhappy with our lives. We wonder why we are tired, worn out, and needing to get away. Who are we getting away from? Our own minds and bodies? We are the containers for the mental and emotional battles going on in our own minds and hearts. Therefore, we can create a life that is more restful if we choose.

A friend brought this to my attention lately: In Genesis chapters 1 and 2 when God created the world and everything in it, God created man and woman on the sixth day and God rested on the seventh day. This means that the first full day humans existed, they spent the day resting with God. Think about that! Could it be that God created us to rest and work in that order? Could it be that we are the ones that have turned it backward? When I think about my life, some of my most important ideas and work have occurred after I have rested.

I am by no means referring to laziness. If you don’t work, you don’t eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10), learn from the ant’s ways because anyone who is lazy will become poor (Proverbs 6:6-11). But have we mistakened doing our work for working all the time?

If nothing else, the Coronavirus has given all of us an opportunity to reevaluate ourselves. We have probably spent a lot more time with ourselves in the past 9 months than we have spent in a long time. This is a good time to ask ourselves: Where am I? Why am I working so hard? What’s the end goal and at what expense? Why do I care so much? What is really important to me? How can I learn to rest?

This post is not a how-to-manual on resting. Rather, it is a “think about it” as you end 2020 and move into 2021. Reassess what you put on those goals or intentions lists. Consider how you can remind yourself to rest. Get back to resting with God before working. God knows us intimately and passionately. God stirs and directs us in the ways that we should go (if we let Him). And God strengthens us to take on the work that He created us to do. We can’t do this work well outside of Him, hence why work so hard on our own when we can rest in Him first?