Beginning our focus on being ‘Different actually’ we are looking at rest, work-life balance and stress.
My guess is that most people are a little like me, experience heavy levels of activity, always seem to be late, have too many things in the diary, eat in a hurry rather than savouring a meal and get to the end of the week thinking ‘where on earth did that go?!’
God, it turns out has a surprising amount to say about rest.
It all kicks off right on the first page of the Bible. Don’t get hung up on arguments about creation etc, there is amazing and profound truth hidden in the book of Genesis which paints a stunning picture of the nature of God.
Having spent a few days creating the world, the author is at pains to tell us that God then TAKES A DAY OFF. He does not spend time creating more stuff, or polishing aspects of creation which could do with a little tweak (and all of us who have ever been to Grimsby know there are areas which could do with a little tweaking!) No…none of that. He wants to set an example which he is going to teach his people to try and follow for the rest of the book. He wants rest and ‘re-creation’ to be a massive part of our lives. Without it we burn out, blow-up at our kids, ignore our spouses, have no time for our colleagues and grind our bodies down quickly.
So, at the start of this journey into relaxing, and becoming a distinctive people of peace, your challenge this week is to #InvestInRest