Malcolm Potts September 11th 2016 ~ Work to Recovery to Rest[oration]

Great to be back with you after a good break.Cheryl and I are good at holidays, so if anyone needs a chaperone for their holiday, give us a thought. . . [joke ok].Seriously, we do go away and enjoy what we do, where we go and it becomes a time for simplicity and reconnection.  In our busy lives we drift off from each other and holidays are a time to go find each other again.I want to add to James' musing from last week.  He reflected on rest as almost a type of guilty pleasure.  So, many of you have turned recreation into a whole pile of hard work.  Go here, do this, see that and if you miss anything you've failed the recreation test.Holidays I read about in the weekend paper sound like you need to be some elite, brilliant, wealthy, super-gorgeous person to have attained the ultimate experience.  And when you are that person you will emerge out the other side rested, restored, fulfilled and morally ‘good’.  What a crock!James encouraged us, as did Jesus, to find rest - rest for our souls.  The 'Beware!' moment, though, is that if you are not finding rest you're somehow a failure.When I take time out I often flap about for a week before I even begin to chill out.  Walking 250km on the Bibbulmun Track, despite the glory of the scenery, the isolation and the stillness is not necessarily restful.  You can feel quite anxious, just as the cruise on the Danube, airport in Singapore, or 35 different hotels can leave you anxious and exhausted."Did you enjoy your rest?" people ask."Well actually, sort of".Here is the thing.If I am to find my true rest, it won't be about the place.  It will be about what is going on inside my head and heart.  So much of our recreation is about striving not resting.As we seek rest, it is essential to acknowledge to ourselves that recovery always proceeds true rest[oration].  I have to give myself the time and tools to just recover before I can restore and recharge.  If I'm not given the grace to recover, I will never enter the next stage, which is rest.  Rest requires inner quiet, attentiveness, calm.  That's why the half-day holiday is problematic.  Recovery takes time and work.  Then we can enter our rest.As Cheryl confessed to me on our holiday,  she didn't truly enter her rest till we got to Esperance.  That was week four!From work to recovery - which will be different for everyone; from recovery to rest[oration].  It's hard to truly listen. . . very hard.  That's when we find, as Jesus said, "Rest, rest for our soul."Blessings as you ponder these things.Malcolm