Rest is a great thing. It's laying down, it's sleeping and it's an afternoon nap. It's also a beach vacation, a chill weekend or a Sunday afternoon drive down a back road. Rest comes in all forms and fashions, and it's something we all need if we want to stay healthy, both physically and mentally. Whether it's 6-8 hours of beauty sleep every night or 4-6 hours of restless sleep every night, rest is something we all try to get at some point throughout each of our days; however, sometimes, rest can turn into laziness, and lately, that's been the case for me.
Over the past couple of weeks, rest has become an idol in my life. It's been the thing I've looked forward to most of all out of each and every day. Whether it's been hitting the 'snooze' button an extra three times each morning or day dreaming about crawling into bed at night every afternoon at work, I've been taking the whole 'rest well' concept a little bit too far. At one point this week, I literally went into my room at 6 p.m. to take a nap and didn't wake up until 7 a.m. the next morning. Sure, I 'woke up,' but I sure as heck didn't 'get up.' I fell back asleep because the comfort was too real, and I felt like I needed to rest (even though I'd rested 13+ hours).
Lately, rest has turned into laziness for me, and a big reason for that is because I believe that sometimes we feel like we're entitled to rest. That's why this is the first blog that I've written in 15 days (NEARLY HALF A MONTH). For me, that's crazy; however, if you were to ask me why I haven't written in 15 days, I'd tell you it was because I needed rest. After all, I just wrote 100 days in a row. Don't I deserve rest? Aren't I entitled to a few days off? The same thing can be said for why I hit the snooze button and skip out on some of the morning disciplines I'd gotten into the habit of. I worked ALL day, and then I went to the gym and had to make dinner after that. I deserve rest because life is tiring, right?
Right. But also, wrong.
Rest is a great thing, and it's something we all need, but when we get to the point where we feel like we're entitled to prolonged rest, it can become a bad thing. When rest begins to steal away from more important things and becomes the driving factor in your decision making process when it comes to what to do with your time, there may be a problem. When rest turns into an excuse for laziness, it may be time to re-evaluate what healthy rest really is.
Healthy rest is not:
- Having the same sleep schedule as a hibernating bear
- Hitting the snooze button like a game of whack-a-mole
- Or being 'entitled' to laziness
Healthy rest is:
- Being still
- Being restored (physically, mentally and spiritually)
- And being aware of where your rest really comes from
At the heart of rest is the discipline of resting well and recognizing that not all the things we choose to relax with give us rest. Separate relaxation and laziness from rest and find the app to your nap.
-Cliff
Cliff's Note: Fifteen days without blogging can't happen again.