Marylou Cash, RN, Clinical Manager
When I think about rest, a couple of things come to mind.
The first is this – Rest is important to God.
As patients of Caring Medical, you put your lives into our care. We provide healing injection treatments to your injured bodies. When you leave here, we encourage you to do all that YOU can do to heal your bodies, including healthy eating, looking up, and adding in proper exercise and movement…but we must not forget REST.
In 21st century America, we live in an action-oriented world that does not value rest! The Bible speaks about rest in Genesis 2:2, where we read that on the seventh day, God rested from all his work. So, God specifically ordained and anointed the concept of rest. If God Himself rested from His work, we should not be surprised that we also need rest, right? The reality of our lives is that we do not have time not to rest. We do not need to rest from our lives, we need to rest for our lives!
So, if rest is so important, what does true rest look like? I was pondering this question myself. And God gave me just the answer I needed. As I was perusing through pictures on my phone, I happened upon some pictures of our cat, Rascal when he was a kitten and I saw the answer…
We rescued Rascal as a 4-week-old kitten from a busy highway. When he was that young and we held him, he had no cares in the world. There was no noise loud enough to wake him. Even if I was moving, if Rascal was being held securely, he continued to rest. For me, as a Christian, this is a good picture of what it means to rest in the God’s love, as He provides security and love in the midst of the chaos of life.
True rest is not the absence of activity or even difficulty, and it is in fact productive. While it may look like Rascal is only sleeping in this picture, we know that the physical body of a kitten is always active. Rest is essential for growth, development, and healing. While it is not apparent from this picture, the body is busy growing, the cells are communicating, and each part of his body is actively transforming into exactly what it is meant to be.
And so it is with us spiritually when we learn to just rest in God’s love for us. The process of resting is essential for our physical and our spiritual growth and for us to become fit for our purpose on this earth!
When we rest in God, we will truly be at rest no matter what circumstances we are facing. Like Rascal, no matter what is going on, we can be peaceful and at rest because we know we are in His arms.
Let us pray to have humble hearts, an attitude of gratitude, and a margin in our lives so that we can truly rest in Him!
