Rest & Relax

This Sunday, Pastor Jason encouraged us to see our God as both Father (full of honor & respect) and Abba (daddy-personal and relatable). To here Sunday’s service, click below:

---

‘Tis the summer season and time to rest. The heat has us all wanting to sit back a little and recuperate. Are you finding ways to rest this summer? Are finding ways to rejuvenate your soul? Here are few reflections from Kathy Lopez who seeking rest and rejuvenation in Colorado this summer.

Rest is an elusive goal, especially in today’s world. The world comes at us like a
cyclone, chaotic, never leaving room for escape. I read the newspapers in digital form,
but Al and I stopped watching the TV news a while ago. It was too stressful to view in
full color video as the human race apparently tries to tear itself apart: for power, money,
tribalism, etc. Whoever wins, if there is a winner at all, will have won a pyrrhic victory at
best. And, if we do not utterly destroy the planet we live on, neither will it be permanent.

On a personal level, rest is encouraged only on the most superficial level: candles, hot
baths, weekends away (or whatever else the latest magazine article insists is the
answer). A major reason for our two months in Colorado is to find rest after a winter
(and perhaps years of winter) of living in this wearying world. Of course I exhausted
myself preparing for our journey, but in the week or so we traveled from North Carolina
to Colorado we visited some beautiful parks, soaked in mineral hot springs, wandered
through the beautiful towns of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and spent time with family. It
was wonderful, in so many ways, so why did my head and back hurt almost the entire
time? Y’all know how much I love to travel, so why when I was in my element, was I still
exhibiting so many signs of stress? I realized about a week into our travels: rest, true
rest, is an elusive goal and I am not skilled enough to achieve it so easily. It cannot be
put on a timer to turn on when I am ready. Of all the life goals I have achieved, it is
ironic that the seemingly simple goal of rest is so difficult.

Everything (or almost everything) is simple when you know how to do it. As I write this, I
am sitting in a laundromat in Longmont, CO about 20 minutes from our cabin. I think
back to the time when before I left for college my mother taught me how to do the
laundry, and with that thought I ponder all the other skills I learned from my mother in
order to navigate this world. Then there are the skills I learned from all the teachers
whose classrooms I have sat in. What started out as as difficult, even at times
impenetrable, is now a part of my skill set. It’s a bit disheartening to realize that rest is
not included among them.

I have learned in the last few weeks that often when I come to a place where I am
allowed to rest, I feel worse than I did before I permitted myself to relax. It’s like every
part of my body that was holding in stress is now wanting to be heard and felt, and it
isn’t pleasant. I am living in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and all I
want to do is take some advil and take a very long nap. When awake, I have been
crabby and out of sorts. At first, I was upset with myself. How could I ruin this time with
my bad mood? “Buck up!” I thought, “Get over yourself.” But that was not the voice of
rest I was hearing. On the contrary, it was the voice of this world, the kingdom of this
earth. What would the voice of God’s rest say to me? What is rest in God’s kingdom?

To begin, I think, you have to pay the price. I must acknowledge all the aches and pains,
physical and mental, that I have accrued over time. They must be acknowledged and set aside because true rest cannot occur if you ignore them. It’s like leaching out the poison from our bodies and souls, so that the process of recovery can begin. This is why I am encouraged by the fact that I have not been feeling great. The first stage of healing has begun. The first step toward true rest has been taken. I’m not sure what the
next step is, so I pray that it will be revealed to me in its proper time. Right now, I think I may just take another nap!

---

Mission Trip to Pamlico County
There are still spots available for our Mission trip August 7-10. We will travel to Camp Caroline on Wednesday afternoon. We will be sharing special events with a group of students from Taiwan in the evening (camp fires, dance parties, cultural exchange, etc.). We will also be working with Disaster Relief doing simple construction projects on homes, working at a food pantry & leading worship for local nursing homes. If you are able to join us, please contact Pastor Joanie.