Rest!

Our small-ish group at church the other night studied for a little bit aout how Jesus took times and went into solitude...to pray or whatever else He might have wanted to do, but resting. Not ministering, not preaching, not hangin' out with buddies. He was alone. He, who was perfect, needed down time. And if He is our exanple, then I guess that means we need to take down time too.

A few years back, I was fully immersed in a couple different ministries, 30 hrs/week of work and full-time school. My two best friend and I had started a ministry called One Loaf where we were trying to get the different Christ focussed churches in our area to unite (not becoming one church, but working together to see people get saved) and stop fighting with each other over doctrines and start working together to show the lost in our community what Christ looks like. At the same time, I was leader of the church worship team...preparing each weeks music, organizing practices and teaching new songs. Also, I was a volunteer fire fighter, while going to community college full time (60 mile drive to school) and then coming home to work a few hous every night. I was tired, but could not see how resting would help since I would simply get behind on everything and everyone was counting on me holding my end up. Something happened. I started noticing in my daily devotions that there was a recurring theme of rest. At first I just blew it off as my imagination running away with me, but day after day, the Lord seemed to be showing me that I needed to take some time to rest.

This went on for a couple weeks. Then my mother started telling me I should rest. I resisted. Then my two best friends told me I should rest. I resisted. Then my pastor's wife said I should rest. Still, I resisted believing that God would not want me to give up a ministry just so that I could rest. It was weakness to rest...in my mind anyway.

So, after church got out this particular Sunday, my friends and I were saying our good-byes as usuall, involving multiple hugs (Even then, I hugged every body. Some things never change...except now I don't hug guys...unless I've known them for a long time and they don't have personal space issues...or unless I am related to them) and many well wishes for a good coming week. I corrected one of them saying "I will see you later," not really knowing how true that would be.

When I got home, mom and I wanted to ride the horses. I was exhausted, but thought that I never get a chance to just ride and my horse really needed to be ridden. So, off we went. We started across the creek (if you are new to Laura's world, you may look at pictures posted at http://laurie3jf.spaces.msn.com/ -under photo album, see trip to MP (22)- to see where this riding and all the rest of this story takes place) but my horse spooked, rared up and since I ride bare back...down I went. No worries, I was a bit shaken, but not hurt. My horse, however, was not going to get the best of me, so I found a stump, climbed on and attempted to get back on my horse. Unfortunately she bolted just as I was almost on her, rared up again and this time I landed head first on the very stump which had served as my step ladder. *Stunned*

Mom saw the last part.... you know, the fall and head hitting part. Moms should never see that stuff. So, first she sat me up against a tree, then made me look at her fingures and tell her who the president was. I guess she didn't like what I said, so she hopped back on her horse and rode to the house to call for help. (As a side note...we live 20 miles from church. The Fire Station is next door to the church. The nearest ambulance is another 10 miles away at the closest town. The hospital is another 10 miles beyond that. To make things even more intesting, we live 6 miles up a winding dirt road, and I am another half mile off that). I thought it was gonna be half an hour beforehelp came, so I just sat back and started thinking. I was thinking..."I feel fine, head hurts a little, but this is a bunch of fuss over nothing. The Doctors gonna just tell me to go home and- oh my gosh!!! God, are you telling me that I need to rest? Have You been telling me that I need to rest and I haven't been listening? So, now I have no choice but to rest? So, I'm gonna be just fine, huh? Wow, okay, I'll do it.....Oh, and I'm really sorry about the not listening thing, yeah, that's not gonna happen again"

So, ten minutes later I hear the wail of an approaching siren. (A little background here, I said earlier that I was on the volunteer fire department, what I didn't mention was that so was most of the rest of my church). I remembered thinking..."see, this isn't an emergency...time has just been flying by...help is already here. If this were an emergency, time would be standing still and I would be wondering what was taking so long." It wasn't long till I could hear the voices of my closest and dearest friends approaching, splash, splash, splash through the creek, muffled a little by the turnouts they were wearing (fireman pants). Then I saw them.

With the greatest of care, I was strapped to a board and carried out of the woods, across the creek, on to a stretcher and into an ambulance. Firemen were praying over me, touching my head, crying. Firewomen were holding my hand and joining with the men in prayer. (If you ever have to get rescued, those are the ones you want with you!)

It was a long ride to the hospital. They X-rayed my head and neck, made me lay flat with that horrible brace around my neck, and then the daoctor came. He said, "Laura, you are fine...you hurt a lot, but there is no permanent damage. What I really want to see you do is go home and rest for a few days." Rest!

So, why did I decide to share this tonight. It is because so often we get caught up in what we are doing....work, ministry, school, friends...but we forget to set some time aside to just rest. I'm not talking about sleep here, I am talking about time away from everything, just to be alone with God. Even God rested....Genesis 2:2, Jesus rested or spent time alone (Mt 14:13, 23; Mk 6:46; Lk 4:42, 5:16, 6:12, 22:41; Jn 6:15, 8:1, 12:36b) so I suppose it's not too far fetched to believe that He really does want us to rest too. Take break and regain focus.

Glory, glory, glory! I hope this finds you well and that you find some encouragement. God loves you and was lookin out for you ever since the time of creation! Probably even before that!!!! Yay! God is so cool!

Love and Peace! ciao