Just Sleeping

Slowing down for me can be the hardest thing ever. Trying to find rhythms that sync with my need to keep producing, creating, and growing seems like a never-ending uphill run. While I’m not breathing heavily at the moment, and my fuel tank seems to be full I can see where hustle has proven to be the wrong path.

I have challenged myself over the next month to do less hustling and more observing, growing, recharging, and let myself just be. Be in love. Be in grace. Be in the Word. Be with family. Be in peace. Just be me.

Jeremiah 2: 25 in the Message version says this! “Slow down. Take a deep breath. What’s the hurry? Why wear yourself out? Just what are you after anyway? But you say, ‘I can’t help it. I’m addicted to alien gods. I can’t quit.’

This verse is referring to the people of God who were addicted to other Gods or idols that had become sins in their own lives. It was deafening the sincere-loving relationship with the real God that desired for them to be at peace.

I love the question here this verse poses. Why wear yourself out? Let’s ask ourselves this question today as we go from one moment to the next.

Why wear yourself out? No need to keep running after people’s approval of you. Worshipping others’ opinions of you tires you and distracts you from your purpose. Stop striving to be better, to do more, to have the best, to get more knowledge so that you are seen as intellectual. I’m not saying it’s okay to be lazy and apathetic. Not at all. I’m saying less hustle for more restful.

What does the rest look like? Rest is not just slowing down it’s a state of refreshing, and replenishing. The action step to rest is to cease. Cease work and movement and instead just be in the moment. Be who you are. Be free of action.

Sometimes becoming better, becoming more, and becoming stronger is all in the rest. It’s all in the silence of holding ground. Jesus would prefer us to do “more resting” instead of hustling. When he lived on Earth if you follow his miracles, the places he went, and the people he talked to you will find that Jesus wasn’t very fast. He wasn’t fast enough for many of his followers. One man came to him requesting for his child to be healed because she was close to death’s door. Jesus didn’t seem to worry. Jesus didn’t seem to stress. He went at his own pace, and after the child died – he said she was “just sleeping.”

Just sleeping…YES! That miracle that day became even greater through the restful, slow, and balanced pace that He carried himself in. It didn’t take striving to see the miracle happen. All Jesus needed was faith. Jesus knew the power of pace.

No matter what is keeping you up at night. No matter what next big goal you feel you need to accomplish. Your next days will come the way they are supposed to when you simply have the power to pace yourself. Don’t wear yourself out. Breath! Walk! Be in the moment today. You are still on your way to the best you. Walking at the pace of Jesus will reap greater miracles, greater accomplishments, and greater victories than you could ever imagine.

I agree this seems like an action step, just rest. When you’re running all the time, ceasing can seem impossible. So let’s just slow down a little at a time and wait for the right pace to arrive. You will know when you are walking in the power of pace. Remember – your purpose is “just sleeping.” It’s not dead, you have plenty of time to awaken the plan of God one moment at a time.