How do you rest?
It’s not just sleep or idling or “wasting time”; there’s something different about resting. It’s a cycle of replenishing the spirit for the work ahead, and rest may look different for everyone who engages in it. For some people, rest might involve meditation or prayer. For others, rest means an afternoon on a blanket in a park with friends. And then, for people like me (who require a keyboard and a blank page to think properly), rest may involve a whole lot of writing things you don’t really intend to publish. Rest can still be creative and active, but it requires some hefty self-awareness to know what activities you truly find restful and which ones are just more work.
Hebrews 4 begins with a meditation on rest. Picking up where chapter 3 left off, the author continues to draw on Psalm 95, the history of Israel, and the importance of the present moment.
Far back into Israel’s earliest mythology, God rests on the seventh day. Having looked upon creation and seen it to be good, God chooses to rest. The famous poem at the beginning of Genesis establishes the rhythm of life for ancient Israel, and it’s a rhythm we still observe today in how we structure our work week. After periods of work, there must come rest, just as sleep must come at the end of the day. Rest is a part of the human cycle, and without it, we suffer.
As a case study, the author of Hebrews moves forward into Israel’s recorded history, specifically the time of the Exodus. As Moses and company flee Egypt to find a new home, they continually waver in their faithfulness to God, and this sets them back farther and farther in their journey. Notice how Hebrews doesn’t talk about these delays as a failure to reach a place; instead, they’re a failure to reach rest. God’s goal for these refugees is not only to give them a physical home, but to bring them into a spiritual home of rest, and their continual shortcomings delay the process. The author of Hebrews draws the connection for us: faith in God is a crucial step in the journey to holy rest.
From here, the author of Hebrews moves into the present, that perfect “today” we’ve seen in previous chapters. When we rest —and I mean truly rest— we enter a sort of perfect present. We’re able to be in the moment even if just for a moment. So, however you rest, make your rest a priority this upcoming week. Treasure those sabbath moments. They’re a natural necessary part of life, and the spiritual benefits are incalculable.