Too Busy?

If you wonder: 'What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t sow or gather our produce?' I will appoint My blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. - Leviticus 25:20-21

We have all heard the proverb, "Make hay while the sun shines." There is another that is much like it which tells us to, "Strike while the iron is hot." These proverbs speak of the need to make a profit while the opportunity exists, of the need to maximize our potential progress while it remains possible to do so. Yet, as conventional as such wisdom may seem, God still commanded the Israelites to do nothing with their fields every seventh year. They were to let them rest. The iron was hot. The sun was shining, but they were commanded to DO nothing.

The principle of rest is very important to God. Even He rested after six days of creation. Was He tired? Of course not. Yet, He still took time to REST.

Rest is for reflection and meditation. It is an opportunity to consider all that God has done, all that He has made possible in your life. It is time to THINK, to LISTEN; all such activities which are contrary to our capitalistic, driven culture. As a person who is personally driven, I don't like it. Rest feels unproductive. It can even lead to despair and discouragement. If your identity is wrapped up in achievement, forced rest can even lead to deep, painful, self-examination. Is it any wonder that God commands it? We need it.

Are we too busy, too busy for God?

Meditation here may think down hours to moments. Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head and learning wiser grow without his books. - William Cowper