“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” – St. Augustine

I didn’t know what true tiredness was until I became a mom. All this tiredness makes me appreciate rest. Just one hour, or even 30 mins, of silence when I can just lie down, read the word, be – no sound of crying or talking or thoughts of what I have to cook, how much I have to clean. Rest. 

Rest comes at a cost – if not your cost, somebody else’s. When you’re a child, you can rest because your parents are working hard for you. If you’re older, then perhaps the younger you worked hard and saved up so you could rest. If you’re enjoying the benefits of a first world country, it’s because someone on the other side of the world is suffering the effects of global capitalism. In some form or another, someone is sacrificing or has sacrificed for your rest. 

“Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11: 28)

Jesus has paid for our ultimate rest. His rest comes once for always. He doesn’t have to work again to give it. But the work he did once was heavy. It cost him everything – heavenly glory, abandonment from the father, physical exhaustion, excruciating pain, loss of all his blood, and all his friends. But because he paid this measureless cost, the rest we have gained is also measureless. Eternal.  

“Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no on will perish by following their example of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4: 11)

However, there is work we need to do to enter his rest. More than anything, I believe God wants us to rest. What is rest? Being with God. The whole point of Jesus coming and dying is that we might be with him. That is heaven, that is the Kingdom, that is eternal life. But how do we enter it? “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts….For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” We must hear the word of God, today. Yesterday’s hearing doesn’t carry over to today nor will today carry on to tomorrow. Each day’s struggle is unique and necessary. We must enter his rest, today. 

It’s been hard to get that 1 hour, those 30 minutes. But I recognize that God gives me these pockets of time as his grace. Joshua works so we can send Dani to daycare for a couple hours so that I can have just a little more rest. Thankfully, I am to claim these moments of rest to truly rest. I am tempted to just scroll on my phone and do nothing. But may my work and effort be to enter into God’s rest by listening to his word and really believing it. Though I can’t sit down and read as I wish and used to do, I pray that God may meet me as I prioritize entering his rest. May what I do in these pockets of time cultivate a communion with Jesus so strong that it overflows and permeates into my everyday life, tasks, and relations. His grace is too precious to lose to busyness and worry.