I caught the words 'I'm bored' come out of my mouth recently and it was sort of a startling realization! Wait, really? In the last year alone I've been to Paris, the Outer Banks of North Carolina (OBX!!!), and Israel with a group of amazing Aussies! I've been to four weddings, threw a wedding shower, bachelorette party, gave a maid of honor toast, spent a few weekends in NYC, and a few day trips to Boston...just to ramble off a few activities. I'm too busy to be bored! When did boredom even have a chance to appear? The second I entered extended rest.
Rest seems to be the word of the season these days. Grad school is done. Ministry is on hold. Debt must decrease and savings must increase...so travel must decrease too. Rest feels so unproductive and incredibly boring to me!
But, like the clothing line Made Well, we can't be well until we rest well. No circuit runs forever on it's own. I mean, no DC (battery powered) circuit anyway! Creation mimics its creator - electronics require recharging just like the humans that made it! There's yet to be a permanent power source we can plug into and stay running 24/7...as much as I joke about an IV drip of coffee, it just isn't realistic! We need to sleep, we need to rest. Sleep is wonderful! I can't seem to get enough of it! I just can't stop resisting rest for some reason.
The problem, if you're like me, is that thoughts begin to wonder (I haven't found the off switch for this yet); about work, relationships, our schedules, etc. The comparison game begins to be played which can spiral into a fatal prognosis that one's life is boring just because the current season seems slow. Fast and busy somehow equates to meaningful and fun for some reason. So if we see someone else with a perpetually full plate we subconsciously envy them IF we find ourselves in a 'season of rest.' See, boredom is determination that someone else's life is better - that your process is somehow over, when really it's got much more ahead! When we limit our scope to the present moment we lose sight of the big picture and run the risk of ruining what lay ahead!
I'm convinced that when building a house, the foundation takes the longest amount of time. Case in point, if you walk by a Habitat for Humanity site, it seems like the digging and the laying of concrete takes forever and all the sudden you go by again and the frames and walls are all up, ready for the internal touches! That's because foundation is the most important level. Humanity is not like the process of building a home. Houses are built in one direction...from the ground up! I'm no contractor, but I doubt there's much back and forth in the process. That's why the foundation must be perfect so one can build on it! But humanity operates in seasons that unlike the ones on our calendars, can overlap at times and even look like a three steps forward one step back pattern. And unfortunately the seasons of life don't have clear welcome or exit signs so we might not even realize which season we're in right away.
I used to take power naps in college. I refined the art of it. If I slept less than twenty minutes it wasn't enough and I'd be tired...if I slept more than twenty minutes but less than two hours I should have just skipped the nap altogether because I'd wake up feeling worse than I started. Twenty minutes is the perfect power nap for me! Seasons of rest (whether vacations or a semester off of school, or a break from that organization) are power pauses. They might seem useless but they are strengthening us to propel us into the next big thing, battle, or breakthrough.
Pauses are powerful. Ever be in a heated or heavy conversation, and the person responds with a lot of silence? Ever audition for a part and the call back doesn't come the day it was supposed to? Or you're waiting to hear back from a job interview? Pauses are powerful because they crank up the heat and make us sweat! Pauses can cause worry, panic, fear, you name it. Seasons of rest are power pauses. The heat of uncertainty might rise, the waves that cloud our vision might rise...but don't panic. Heat causes impurities to rise to the service so what is revealed can be healed. Fine metals are made in crucibles to burn off imperfections until what remains is gold! A power pause can be just what God has in mind when He won't show you the picture on the puzzle box, but keeps giving you puzzle pieces. He's at work in and through us even when we see nothing happening in this season or can't understand the connections. Don't give into the lie that you're bored. You just haven't realized the fun you're in the middle of yet;-) You're in a powerful process if you could only look up to realize it!
Life is cyclic and complicated and comes with many seasons that don't necessarily sync up with our friends seasons. Even if we want them to. But the quicker we realize we're not actually in control the smoother the ride will be! Rest is more than just about health. It's about release. From the lyrics of one of my favorite artists, Josh Garrels, "My rest is a weapon against the oppression of man's obsession to control things ("The Resistance"). The movie doesn't stop just because I put the remote control down. Life isn't dull when at rest. It's packed full of process.
I'm determined to not give into the lie of boredom; it's a trap that deceives me into thinking God's process isn't perfectly timed!
