RES TING

WITH GOD

S hort & honest

Reading s, poems & reflect ions
To start yo ur holiday
Resting with God

b y Be ned i ct A tkin s
DAY O N E
The Lord grants sleep to those he loves

Also to those who learn how to switch off from work

To look after their bodies

And rest

Because they are loved

And are worth more than what they do

Resting to remind themselves - and perhaps others, too -

that even without the measurable success of daily tasks

They are still worthy of daily bread

And loved beyond belief.

We are loved; not because of our work but because we are his
work.

The lord grants sleep to those he loves.

He grants rest. Take it.

DAY T WO
Keep me as the apple of your eye
Hide me in the shadow of your wings

I want to be cherished and protected

Surrounded by the church family I love so intensely

But

Stepping away from this I feel exposed

The more vulnerable parts of me laid bare

And cold

I feel needy

Months of leadership,

A lonely cost to bear

Which often leaves a deficit

Holiday is a good time to remember

I am first loved, before I can love others

And loved first by one who loved me

before anyone else could love me

Of all the people who love me

Cherish me

Surround me and support me

The Lord God

Loves me most

Supports me most

Surrounds me utterly

Protects me fully

Keep me as the apple of your eye

Hide me under the shadow of your wings
DAY T HR E E
For God alone my soul waits in silence
He is my rock and my salvation

Into the holiday’s first silence

Comes the sound of a plaster peeling from the cracks in my

surface

Unhealed scratches and unprocessed thoughts

from the last few months

Excitements too

While there is a time to reflect

A time to lament

And certainly a time to say “Well done!”

There is also a time to wait in silence

A time to remember that my salvation is the Lord

That my truest refuge and unshakeable peace will come from

him

Not answers to my problems

Nor from replaying a years worth of what-ifs and should-haves

Nor from human reassurance to soothe my tired confidence

But from the Lord.

My vocation is a mountain of words.

Listening to them.

Speaking them.

Creating

Analysing

Thinking of better ones as I walk away

Trying to use them better next time.

Silence is a deep discipline

Clearing space for my spirit to breathe

And my soul to rise

Breaking off the ill-fitting yoke of self sufficiency

Which has crept onto my shoulders.

All it takes is a few skipped sabbaths

A few ‘just this one thing more to do’

Before I’ve fooled myself into trading places with my saviour

It is true, I carry a cross

But not the world on my shoulders.

My little life, as it is, is found in him.

For God alone my soul waits in silence

He is my rock and my salvation
DAY F O UR
Speak, Lord. For your Servant is listening.

God is speaking in our rest.

But we may so associate his voice with work

That we block our ears when resting.

In the desperation of our rest

We may find our feet slip down the slope of stress

And go into hiding at the sound of his footsteps

Simply to escape the unbearable responsibility.

I cannot risk to hear his words, for what have I known of them
apart from work?

But he calls to me still,

“Where are you?”

He speaks to us to invite us to rest.

Sometimes to direct it.

“Come and have breakfast.” - John 21.12

And he is speaking to us in our rest.

About our rest

To nourish us in our rest

Our deepest parts

Neglected parts

The parts left behind while we work

Or overlooked while we serve others

Need his voice.

Dare to trust his care for you

Yes, you.

Hear him call your name

To himself.

DAY F IV E
For whenever our hearts condemn us,
God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”

Holidays can feel like hell

When you’re running away from something

Daily routine can distract us from the brooding storm within -

The chaos beheld

When we face ourselves

And God

We may not have such strength.

And so it is that holidays can feel scary

The break in work leaves space for the sin, pain and fear that
we’ve been crowding out

With more worthy things like other people’s sin and fear and
pain

But our rest will be wasted

If we don’t retire from

Our relentless attempts to hide from the all-seeing kindness of

God.

Today is a day to stop

To face reality

And God

Who knows everything

Is greater than our hearts

And loves us.

Lord God,
we have sinned against you;
we have done evil in your sight.
We are sorry and repent.
Have mercy on us according to your love.
Wash away our wrongdoing and cleanse us from our sin.
Renew a right spirit within us
and restore us to the joy of your salvation,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

May the God of love and power

forgive you and free you from your sins,
heal and strengthen you by his Spirit,
and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord.
Amen.
DAY SIX

Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest.

His yoke includes rest.

The yoke of some rabbis treated the sabbath as a rule for

people to serve,

rather than a rhythm to serve people.

Observing it with military-like enforcement,

it became a day of work itself.

But Jesus’ yoke made space for rest. It reclaimed sabbath.

Eager to learn, we can read the gospels with our eyes on

Jesus, wanting to imitate him.

But there is treasure to be found in seeing ourselves in the lives

of his disciples.

They show us what it is to be loved and served by him.

To be accompanied through our days of doubts, mistakes and

questions.

Here we see how Jesus treats us on the sabbath.

He used the sabbath to take grain to feed us.

He used the sabbath to heal us.

He used the sabbath to go for a walk and laugh with us.

Welcome to Jesus’ sabbath.

He saw sabbath as a holy down day in the weekly rhythm of up

days. A day to be, to remember our value is not in what we do
or give or earn or take but in the simplest fact of our
createdness and loveliness, we rest in the tenderness of a God
who doesn’t want us to work all the time.

Jesus yoke includes rest

His yoke has commands

Instructions, yes

Sacrifice, yes

But also rest.

Unstructured and Inefficient

Spontaneous and Sociable

Noisy and personal

Quiet and unmeasurable

Time.

Watching clouds roll

Kicking pebbles along the Galilee beach

Thinking

Laughing

Drinking.

Our master’s way includes rest.

Well done good and faithful servant.

Beloved friend.

I rest therefore I am.

DAY SE V EN
Things had been quite intense, I suppose.

Not much personal space.

A lot of looking after other peoples needs.

I had my own stuff going on

Troubles with God and doubts of myself

but the constant needs of others

seemed to take priority.

It’s not as if I don’t know

That my own needs matter

But in the relentless flood of ministry needs and opportunities

It’s easier to tend to other people - other things -

Than myself

And the more time goes on

It gets harder to look inward, to know where to start

Because I supposed that if I stopped for myself

I may unravel

So I waited for a better time

See how Noah’s shame

Was not of his acts before the face of God

But the discovery by his children

An insight to us that, perhaps,

He had long been living fearfully

Before the face of others

Perhaps this fear robbed him

Of the honour that should have robed him;

So tied to the care of others

That his cares could not be drowned

When responsibility finally dropped

There was nothing else clothing him

And when others were gone,

There was no self left

He was ashamed to be caught naked but

Perhaps more ashamed that his nakedness exposed

What led him to be found there

A friend of God

A leader of others

A weak and tired human

The desire to get drunk in the dawn of holiday is one that more
of us feel than are brave to admit.

Our friends may in good spirits fetch our first glass with well-
meaning care, while we know it fills a deeper void. Merry
company is one thing; the elixir of escape another.

Perhaps we can start our holiday by admitting this;

and letting those of whom we are so afraid of catching us in

our vulnerability

to see our needs and let them carry us instead.

Better to fall into the arms of our dependants

Than have them find us fallen alone

Because if the pressure’s overwhelming, it’ll come out one way

or another.

And perhaps a group hug

Is a better way to start your holiday

Than a night on the bathroom floor.