Rest Period. (Sunday Thoughts Link Up #33)
MARK 9:2-4
2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
MARK 9:30-32
30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
When you’re little and paddling around the pool of life with your puddle jumper on, the world feels huge with possibilities-one big playground and everyone’s your friend and time is for people who wear watches and naps are for losers. You run until your small legs ache, but you’re not sad about the ache because it’s just what happens when you have places to go and things to do. You eat in handfuls, like a gazelle, a nibble here, a nibble there. You dig a hole in the dirt just to see how deep you can go. You are learning; you are learning so much about the world at one time. Which is why you lose your mind when bedtime comes. Literally. You lose all rationale. Night is the end. Night is the culmination of all you avoid: the dark, the closing of a day you just had figured out, the ceasing of activity, of play.
We are all just big toddlers really. We run and work and tweet and brunch like it’s the last hurrah, like someone’s watching with a timer. We want so much to be “in the know”, but there’s just so much to know. I feel it. I feel the burnout…that scorched feeling around my eyes and aura that signals I’ve spent too much time too close to things that do not feed my soul.
Sometimes we need a shuffling of priorities, a rearranging in the spice rack of life. Sometimes we need a rest period, and God knows it, and he waits to see if we will do it ourselves or if he needs to make us sit out a round at the pool. Jesus did it with the disciples. He took Peter, James and John away, up the mountain—a meditative hike before the big reveal. He needed them to see him with clear eyes. And he did it again in Galilee. He stayed off the radar because “he was teaching his disciples.” They were learning and learning takes time away from the cacophony of the crowd; it is a quiet and slow process. Have you ever tie-dyed a shirt? Everybody knows once you spend all that time twisting and rubberbanding and dipping, you don’t just throw it in the rinse cycle. You set it aside. You wait. You let it soak up all those indigos and persimmons and ceruleans. You let it lie. And then you wash and dry and wear your colors with pride.
We all need a time of reflection—a time to step away from the runway and watch a few planes go by while we think on what our travels have taught us thus far in life. You go to sleep at night to reset, to rest those aching legs and reclaim a rational mind. And then you wake up. Anew. This is what God calls us to. He calls us to wear our hearts and minds out in excitement over life and him. And then he calls us to rest, so he can show us more tomorrow in a clearer light with clearer heads.
Sunday Thoughts Link Up!
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A big thank you from Jamie on The Mom Gene!
