Tag: Rest

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Why Rest Matters

THIS WEEK’S GOSPEL IS MATTHEW 11:25-30

Be honest…do your Sundays really look like a day of rest? We have a legitimate need for rest and most of us ignore it. But today’s Gospel reflection will change that–watch now to discover the top reasons why rest matters and how making time for rest will transform your life!

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Minute Meditation – Take a Break

We take seriously the words of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel when he warns against “carousing and drunkenness.” But he also warns against “the anxieties of daily life.” It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the many tasks of this season of preparation. Cleaning, cooking, shopping, wrapping packages, cleaning some more, baking, doing dishes, going on one more shopping excursion. As so often happens during busy times, we find ourselves going to bed late, getting up early, grabbing fast food on the go, skipping a workout at the gym because we don’t have time, and generally not taking good care of ourselves. Then we go to parties where we eat too much rich, sweet food, and drink one too many alcoholic beverages and the downward spiral continues. Sit quietly for five or ten minutes today. Pay attention to your breathing. Hear Jesus say, “You are busy and anxious about many things.” You know what those anxieties are. As you breathe in calm reassurance, breathe out those anxieties and turn them over to the Lord.

Ask your body and your spirit what they need at this time. It might be rest. Then again it might be more exercise. Our needs change throughout our lives and we don’t always pay attention to that. Take a walk. Take a nap. Do both. Cancel an engagement and stay home for the evening. Or resist the pull of the recliner and Netflix and go to dinner with a good friend. The main thing is to take time to ask yourself in any given moment if what you’re doing is really what you need or if another choice would be better. Then make the better choice, choose the better part.

— from the book Simple Gifts: Daily Reflections for Advent
by Diane M. Houdek

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Minute Meditation -In Rest is Your Salvation

We don’t know how to rest and relax anymore. Picture an overtired toddler fighting a much-needed nap. This is a good image for many of us as we push ourselves through days filled with too much activity and too much stress. Part of the problem is that too often the work we do takes place mostly in our brains and on our computers. We are mentally but not physically tired. People who work in physically demanding jobs perhaps have a better awareness of the body’s need for rest. I think my parents and grandparents were much better than I am at balancing work and rest. But this isn’t solely a twenty-first-century phenomenon. As far back as the beginning of the Hebrew Scriptures, God had to command one day of rest for the Chosen People. Left to ourselves, like toddlers we will keep going until we drop in our tracks. One of my favorite quotes from Isaiah talks about how quiet trust and rest will lead to salvation. It wasn’t until I found the quote in its full context that I understood how much we resist the very thing we most need: For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you refused and said, “No! We will flee upon horses”— therefore you shall flee!—Isaiah 30:15–16 We rely a great deal—probably too much—on our own efforts. We become convinced that we’re indispensable and irreplaceable. We don’t realize that it’s OK to ask for help—or at least allow ourselves to take a day off and return to the task with renewed energy.

— from the book Simple Gifts: Daily Reflections for Advent
by Diane M. Houdek