It’s SNOWING Ya’ll!
This southern gal gets excited when snow of any kind falls from the sky – we didn’t have much snow where I grew up and a snow day was almost like a once-in-a-lifetime event (okay, three times a year). It turns out my daughter feels similarly. All she has wanted to do for the past week and a half has been to make a snow angel. Today she may get her wish!
I’ve been reflecting on the work that we all do recently. I’m spending some time this week at Menucha, a Camp and Retreat Center stewarded in part by our friends in the Presbyterian Church – USA world. I am taking some time to be apart from my day-to-day life and learning what it is to breathe in the middle of it all.
There is a lot coming up for us to be aware of – staff transitions, shifts in our country’s policies, a ministry conference, a missions fair, a Lenten theological study group, and all the other things that life brings with it. It would have been easy for me to say, “no, now is not a good time to get away. There is too much to do.”
A clergy colleague reminded me recently that rest is important. Learning to rest when we need to rest, taking a break when life feels out of control, is crucial to our survival. Jesus rested on the boat, with waves crashing all around.
Even Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rested, believing rest to be a form of resistance. When the world was up against him the bravest thing he could do was to rest and give time to his family and his personal needs.
Tricia Hersey founded The Nap Ministry and wrote the book Rest is Resistance. One of her top four tenants is that rest is a form of resistance because it pushes back and disrupts white supremacy and capitalism. Rest tells the world that we know we are more than the work we produce or the outcomes we reach. Rest tells the world that we understand that we are enough as we are.
Seeds rest beneath the soil until the time is right for them to break through. And even then, the work that they do is hard but life-giving. They take time to sink their roots into the soil and establish a foundation from which they will spring when the time is right. A lot happens in the life of a seed as they rest in the darkness, waiting for the right time to break through to the light.
Rest is about more than napping or sleeping when you are exhausted. There is a concept of active rest – doing something that is restoring for your soul and gives you life. It’s like Rev. Hernandez shared with us last week: when you find the work you are called to do, it will not deplete you and leave you feeling exhausted.
So, take some time to rest. But take some time for restoration and resistance as well. Take an art class, a dance class, a yoga class. Go to Martha’s yoga retreat on March 29. Find a committee or task force that uses your gifts wholly and completely, in a way that allows you to come out of it feeling energized. Take a nap.
And, let go. Let go of the things that are causing you to feel exhausted. Let go of the things that keep you awake at night. Let go of the things that are causing you distress. Find ways for restoration in the midst of the things that you must do that aren’t as life-giving.
Maybe you can even make a snow angel!
