Time to rest

I just read this post by Lisa-Jo. Reading her posts is always good for my soul, but this one on rest
especially resonated, as it follows on the tails of yesterday’s sermon.

I’m coming off of five years of a 140-mile-a-day, five-day-a-week commute. It was every bit as stressful as it sounds, and then doubled. I left that job in March, for a new one that required full time travel for the first few months. Also every bit as stressful as it sounds. But thankfully that chapter ended last Thursday.

Friday I didn’t leave the house except for a quick trip to the store for school supplies. Saturday involved a few chores around the house, and I started to feel not exhausted.

It was so nice to be in my home church Sunday morning. The first point in the sermon was about following God’s rhythm, six days of work followed by a day of rest. Work hard, play hard, yes. But remember that even God rested. That He commands us to rest, it is that vital to our well-being.

Yesterday after the sermon I thought how nice it would be to have an afternoon at home with little to
do, but instead my day required going back to church. I was there five hours for a meeting that will bring changes in the next month or so, hopefully the right ones. It was a good, productive time, doing the important work of the church.

When I left the house I was worried I would feel like I hadn’t had a Sunday, which has been my normal for way too long. For five years Sunday afternoons were dedicated to preparing for five days of commuting. The last four months, Sundays have been spent in the car or the airport, traveling to
company headquarters.

But last night, when I got home at 8:00, I didn’t have to figure out what to wear all week, and pack a
suitcase and a lunch, and wonder if the car had gas. I didn’t have to go to bed at 9:00, since the alarm
didn’t have to be set for 4:20 am.

Instead, I sat on the couch and talked with my husband, and played a mindless game on my iPad.

And I woke this morning feeling tired, but not weary.

I worked today, sitting on my couch in comfy clothes. I handled conference calls, on-line meetings, and document revisions. I can’t begin to tell you how much I got accomplished.

But I did it while my daughter sang “Let it Go” at the top of her lungs in her bedroom.

I stopped and had lunch with my people at our kitchen table.

I brought in the boxes the UPS man delivered, and got the bathroom organized before it was time to worry about dinner.

I had a leisurely dinner with my family.

I hung out with my kids and watched cooking shows.

And I read a blog post, then found the energy to write my own, for this little blog that hasn’t seen a post in way too long.

The change has been hard, but this change, this new job that comes with challenges and struggles as all jobs do, will also bring more days like these.

Days where I have worked and played, handled countless tasks for work and home, been wife and mom, yet still found some time for me at the end.

And so change is good.

We are gearing up for school, for the messes and the professor, and the usual chaos of the fall. But I
hope this year I will be able to more fully participate in the fun and the work of my home, so that we can all find more opportunities to do the things that define rest for this family: to read, to play, to cook and bake, to sew, and hopefully to write.

It will be good for all of us.