Today, was a day of extravagant rest. It was a day of lounging and eating delicious food and meaningless driving that was filled with meaningful conversation. 

It was a day of idleness, but a day that left ready to face a new day. A day that gave me space to plan and dream and embrace the life I’ve been given. 

While others were beginning new goals and starting weight loss challenges, I ate a giant plate of nachos and binged watched movies with my husband. But somewhere in the snuggles with dogs and vicariously living through an epic saga of courage in the face of trials, I breathed a deep sigh of relief and readied my heart to take on the new week. 

Because the work of rest is indeed work. And that is why it has been commanded. 

God gives us rest, not as a burden, but because He knows we are prone to neglect it. We are prone to just get one more task done, to get a jump start, to fill every day and moment. But we need to disconnect from our work, to embrace the beauty of our world and indulge in the things that make us smile. 

Today, that looked like driving around and enjoying the last remnants of the Christmas lights in a nearby neighborhood. It looked like dreaming of a future home and the celebrations it would hold. It looks like an indulgence that filled my soul. 

The goodness of God, seen in the common grace of friendship, storytelling, and Christmas lights, has given me a new view of the life that God is calling me to live. 

And so tomorrow, I will embrace the work with a renewed vision. 

I will set my hands to each and every task I’ve been given, striving to accomplish it in its proper time so that I may also rest in its proper time. 

Work will be here, day after day, but taking time to rest reminds me that the work does not depend on me, it is fulfilled by God. Because when I work without rest, I communicate to myself and to those around me that I am more necessary than God, who took a day to rest and saw that it was good. 

If God can take a day to rest and tells us to do that same, it is clear that our work can wait.

If it feels too pressing, if we think it cannot wait, we must assume that we are filling ourselves to a larger capacity than we were created to bear. 

So work to the tasks God has given you. Embrace them wholeheartedly as if each task if you’re offering up each task to God, but don’t forget to embrace Sabbath rest. God has given you rest, in the sacred and in the holy, ordinary graces, to fill up your soul and cause you to marvel at the beautify of the world. 

Because that’s what rest it, looking at God’s work and calling it good. That is what He did on the first Sabbath, after the creation of the world, and that is what our rest should cause us to do. Whether you’re lost in the complexity of human nature as portrayed in a good book, the joy seen in a child’s laughter, or the majesty of the sky as seen in a sunset, rest should lead to praise. 

Our God is good, and rest is part of His goodness towards us. 

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