Growing Things Rest

I really just love the way that God designed things, don’t you? There are so many deep spiritual lessons that we can learn from something as simple as nature, and I bet you can guess the lesson that I am going to be focusing on today from the subject line.

Depending on where you are in the world, it might be the beginning of spring for you. It definitely is here in Oklahoma - our plants are already starting to show us some of the promise of the coming beauty as green tendrils start to poke out from beneath the gray earth.

They have all spent the winter resting, and now they are ready to grow. 

I think we get this backwards sometimes. We feel like we need to grow so we can earn the space, or the right, to rest. But then we are typically so exhausted from the effort that we don’t grow very well and we also haven’t rested, so we left in a frustrating kind of limbo. We are trying to hustle our way to healing, often with such single-mindedness that we frequently realize we would have already reached it had only gone slower.

Change is a hallmark of growing things but so are breaks. 

Rests. Times where it looks like absolutely nothing is happening.

It’s hard to find the patience for that sometimes, but like all virtues it’s something that we can grow in. Even if we don’t wait, or rest, well by default we can discover or - probably better put - nurture, that in us which does not come naturally. 

In fact, that is pretty much the gig. That’s the Christian life. 

And also like so much of the Christian life, although it might be hard to rest initially, it can become a source of incredible joy. It is a great privilege to be given the gift of rest by our loving father, who promises us that he will stand in the gap for us. 

We don’t have to worry about what we’re going to miss. We don’t have to worry about the opportunity of a lifetime passing us by, because we commit to living in God's time and not our own. We can rest assured that with this mindset instead of missing the most important thing because we’re taking a break, we will actually see the most important thing when it comes along because our hearts have been trained by the rest to see God at work. 

Watch the world renew this spring and remember - you too have the permission to rest.

P.S. Our Spring Launch is happening this Friday! Watch your email for a special subscribers only coupon code to use on launch day!