This is by no means new- this post. I just re-read it after a few years. I am learning, in my senior years, the great value of rest, and sharing its importance with others. And so, I quote myself.
” Take your rest. That’s ever so important.
It was a full day yesterday which I really enjoyed. Last night, I tried to go some more before realising that I was only going to spoil the day. I went to bed. It was past bedtime, anyway. Just that the summer hours can fool you into thinking that you should really go “all day long” when there isn’t darkness to remind you that it’s sleep time.
I awoke feeling ever so refreshed. It all made sense.
“New every morning is the love
our wakening and uprising prove.
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
restored to life and power and thought”.
The hymnist John Keeble (1792-1866) in his hymn O Timely Happy, Timely Wise did this beautiful poetic paraphrase of Jeremiah’s Lamentations 3: 22-23.
I do feel that it’s a brand-new day. Now, after listening to a meditation that calls us to hope, I can put hope into perspective. I can look forward knowing that nothing is going to happen today that God cannot handle. Last night, giddy from my fun going up the Dom Tower in Utrecht and doing so much else- hope would not have been so easily attainable.
But after a good night’s rest, it is ever so much easier to agree with the psalmist, even if the going should become ultra- tough
5 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He’s my God. (Psalm 42: 5,11 MSG)
So, please enjoy one of God’s Renewing Remedies that Restore.
It’s called rest.
Sleep is rest. Some people have trouble sleeping. If you don’t, then sleep. Only don’t overdo it. The wise teacher warns: Eugene Peterson, in the Message, puts the lesson from the ant this way:
6-11 You lazy fool, look at an ant.
Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two.
Nobody has to tell it what to do.
All summer it stores up food;
at harvest it stockpiles provisions.
So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing?
How long before you get out of bed?
A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,
sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next?
Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,
poverty your permanent houseguest!