January 9: Insight Post by Karenna Rowenhorst
Friday Insight Post
by Karenna Rowenhorst
Browsing a bookstore one day, I found a book called The Worrywart’s Companion and I knew I had to buy the book. Worrying was my strategy for never being surprised or unprepared. I had developed a rule of life that included worrying about every possible outcome so I would always feel prepared. I was thorough, and completely exhausted. Envisioning things that never came to be was sucking a lot of energy and life out of life.
I think the opposite of worry is rest. Rest is a tricky topic. It sounds so nice, and yet it is really hard to do for most of us. I strategize that if I get all my work done, then there will be space and time to rest. So I work harder, trying to get things done more efficiently. I recently felt accomplished working out how to complete two tasks in the kitchen at the same time. Have you tried filling the water reservoir on your coffee maker while at the same time putting a coffee pod in the machine and clicking the lid closed? No? Just me? I can get carried away sometimes.
I’ve also learned that if you do your work faster, there is no end to the to-do list; there are just more things that come up on the list. One thing that has helped make resting possible for me is to think of it as “pausing.” A pause means I know it is not done, and that I will come back to it in a little while, but for now, it is way on the back burner and I am not focusing my mind on it. I’ve also learned that no one but you can tell yourself to rest. We get praised for our productivity, but no one is going to give you a high five for doing less. There is no external reward system for resting.
Rest is not just a good idea for our human minds and bodies. God calls us to rest, and it was actually His idea in the first place (remember what God did on the seventh day of Creation?). When God tells us something is important, there is so much value in understanding the concept fully. In Hebrews 4:3, the description of rest in the Amplified Bible is “inner peace because we are confident in our salvation and assured of His power.” Here is the first part of that verse:
“For we who believe [that is, we who personally trust and confidently rely on God] enter that rest [so we have His inner peace now because we are confident in our salvation, and assured of His power]…” Hebrews 4:3a AMP
Can you envision what peace looks like when it’s shaped inside a human soul? Inner peace to me looks like a fountain that soars in the air and takes up space where worry usually hides out. And that peace allows me to move through difficulty and danger while staying centered and whole.
It’s important to look at why we have this inner peace. It comes from something very specific, it’s not a general “oh, I feel good” situation. We have inner peace because of two things:
- We are confident in our salvation. We know that we have fully surrendered our life to Christ and are part of the family of God.
- We are assured of His power. We know that Christ has the power to defeat death and to save us.
Let’s rest today in our Savior, Jesus Christ, and the power he has to invite us into God’s family. Envisioning rest should feel like settling into a place you know you belong and feel fully accepted. A place where not only do you feel at home, but you also know you are not alone.
Karenna Rowenhorst
Senior Director of Education
New Hope Church
Lorton, Virginia
www.newhope.org