A Day of Rest

Sunday could have been our day of rest, but we were out of town for Labor Day Weekend. Monday--Labor Day holiday--could have been our day of rest, but we were traveling back in town, unpacking, getting ready for a new busy week. As fun as it was, Labor Day weekend left me exhausted.

This year, it seems that I'm in a rhythm of Wednesday being a slow day, a restorative day. Because of school schedules and nap schedules, I have a little more time to myself on Wednesdays, a little more time to reflect.

I love that my life is set up in a series of slow-downs and speed-ups. Routines and schedules vs. free-time and spontaneity. The busy school year feeds into the laziness of summer. Scheduled "work weeks" bring on looser-paced weekends.

We need both. We need productivity, and we need stillness.

The speeding up is easy; but the slowing down actually takes work. How can we cultivate a time of stillness in our lives?

This morning at Bible study, a woman talked about how at one point in her life she told God she was exhausted from all the activities of being a Christian. She said she just wanted to know Him. She talked about the freedom that has come from that shift inside of her, the shift from constant doing to just the knowing.

The whisper inside me said: Stop doing. Be.

I'm not sure how to stop doing and stop the meaningless striving. But it is exhausting. I'd like to just Be. Be still. Be still and know.

"Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10)