Day 78: Be At Rest

"If you look at the world, you'll be distressed.
If you look within, you'll be depressed.
But if you look at Christ, you'll be at rest."
    - Corrie ten Boom

There is only one thing for this day, and it is rest.  We worshiped, we sang, we slept, we laughed, we listened, we rest.

Day 58: Music In Rest

"There is no music in a rest, but there is the making of music in it.  In our whole life melody, the music is broken off here and there by 'rests' and we foolishly think we have come to the end of time.  God sends a time of forced leisure - sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts - and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymns of our lives and we lament that our voices must be silent, and our part  missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator. 

How does the musician read the rest?  See him beat time with unvarying count and catch up the next note true and steady as if no breaking place had come between.  Not without design does God write the music of our lives.  But be it ours to learn the time and not be dismayed at the 'rests'.  They are not to be slurred over, not to be omitted, not to destroy the melody, not to change the key note.  If we look up, God Himself will beat time for us.  With the eye on Him we shall strike the next note full and clear."

- John Ruskin

Day 45: Rest. Again.

"The story is told of a South American tribe that went on a long march, day after day, when all of a sudden they would stop walking, sit down to rest for a while, and then make camp for a few days before going any further.  They explained that they needed that time of rest so that their souls could catch up with them."  - Wayne Muller

This is swiftly becoming my favourite walking day - the day that I don't walk at all.  Not because I don't love the walking - and I'm thankful for the challenge and the opportunity to experience weathers I would normally hide from - but because there is something about the resting that brings out the joy and the hard work and the 'flavour' of walking during the rest of the week.

I believe that it is possible to rest in a way that pleases God - as with anything in our lives that does not break His laws. You can eat in a way that honours Him.  Watch films to honour Him.  Walk to honour Him.  Work hard to honour Him.  Go sailing.  Go shopping.  Read a book.  Play with your nieces and nephews.  It doesn't have to be listening to a sermon or praying in order to be something that is done to His glory.  So enjoy your resting today - and so will I!