Rest here

Are you a yes person?  Do you just automatically say yes when people ask you for something whether it be time, money, help?  Do you just keep finding more and more to do, so that eventually nothing is getting done? Or at least not getting done well?

This is where I am finding myself these days.  The last couple of weeks have been full.  This morning, as I was reading for my Bible study, I read a verse that just jumped off the page.  It seemed to be highlighted, and flashing in neon lights.

Hebrews 4:10-11

For anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works 

just as God did from his.  Let us, therefore, make every effort 

to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their 

example of disobedience.

As I read this I thought, “Oh, look, I’ve been given permission to rest, to say no, to say not today.”  It let me breathe for a moment.

I looked up some commentary on it and I realize that this verse is talking more about a final rest but at the moment I read it, God said to me, “Rest, Sherri.  It’s ok.  Don’t take on so much.”

As I started out on my Lay Servant journey, I said that I wanted to do more. Well, I think I need a little bit more of a concise plan there.  

Oh, I’m doing more, I’m leading a Sunday School class, I’m in the Maundy Thursday drama, I’m chair of a committee (and said committee is having a luncheon this Sunday of which as the chair I am in charge of), I serve on two other committees,  (as I’m typing this it suddenly occurs to me that committee work may not be where I am needed or called to be), I provide pulpit fill which requires sermon writing which requires study and quiet time and writing time and so forth, I’m in the midst of an in depth Bible study, I’m a wife and homeschooling mom and I’m supposed to be caring for our home by cooking and cleaning too, I’m a friend who wants to be there for my friends AND I’ve got this lovely blog where I’m wanting to write and share. 

Yes, as I read the verses above from Hebrews, I heard God saying, “Even I rested, Sherri.  You don’t have to do it all in one week, you don’t have to do it ALL.”

I’m feeling the need to really sit down and rest.  To take time to listen to hear.  This week, I’ve been finding myself quiet one moment and then the next feeling so overwhelmed that I overreact or internalize and that ‘self-talk’ thing I’ve mentioned before gets the best of me and leads me back to the overreacting. 

I’ve noticed that my peace has been slowly ebbing away. Usually, I connect this to neglecting my spiritual life, not reading my Bible as much or not praying like I should, but this time I think it’s more of an issue of neglecting to rest, of feeling like I have to do it all and I have to do it alone.  Feeling like I don’t have time to just sit and rest, to go for a walk with my sweet daughter or to even sit down and watch a TV show or movie.  I don’t know when we last turned on the TV.  Friday?

So, yes, I think it is time to rest and reevaluate what I’m doing and see if I’m doing things that aren’t really where God wants me but is just me wanting to do more.  

I realize that I don’t just want to DO more, I want to do what I can do effectively to make a difference for Christ.  I want to find where God is specifically calling me and let others do the other things.  Those other things are worthy too, they just may be there for someone else to do, and that is something I need to realize.