The Call, the Journey and the Choice to Rest
By Alissa Dedic
September 17, 2024
Mindset is a mental set of ideas, beliefs, or thought patterns. A mindset exercise I loosely follow is to pick a theme word for the year. Sometimes, God doesn’t give me a word. Sometimes, I forget the word until the middle of September, which is the case this year. My word for 2024 wasn’t this totally awesome inspiring word. It was kind of different. Rest. Over the last year, I have experienced the call, the journey and the choice to rest. Over the last year, these experiences have refreshed my mindset.
The Call to Rest
After realizing rest was my word for 2024, I was listening to a podcast about the joy of missing out. I was in a state of disbelief over the advice to intentionally look for joy in missing out. I was already frustrated at the beginning of the year because I felt behind and disappointed. Resting would mean missing out even more! That doesn’t sound joyful. But God models rests, instructs us to rest and offers us rest.
God models rest.
In Genesis 2:2-3, we read that God rested on the seventh day after the spending six days creating the world.
“And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation” (Genesis 2:2–3 ESV).
God instructs us to rest.
In Hebrews, we read that God instructs us to rest because it gives a break from working.
“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:9–10 ESV).
God offers us rest.
Our modern lives are overly busy and overstimulated. That leads to weariness. Our minds need a break from the self-imposed idea that we must work harder. It is a heavy burden to carry to think we must do everything that comes our way. It is a heavy burden to have unrealistic expectations of ourselves. Jesus says He offers us rest and an easy burden.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11: 28–30 ESV).
The Journey to Rest
The year hasn’t been restful. It’s been restless. Literally, my insomnia came back and went away. I have missed out on so many things that I thought were good for me. But, also, I have experienced amazing things I never thought possible because of the goodness of God. If I was still as busy as I was, I would have missed these things and so much more. The restlessness isn’t in my editing and writing.
Rest helped me.
My business is doing well. I have exceeded my goal for the number of books I wanted to edit in the first 12–18 months of starting Elk Creek Content. I had some great conversations with potential clients and other writers. All of the continuing education I have taken has been amazing and easily applied to editing and writing. I started seriously writing again—as in I am keep track of my writing instead of deleting it, throwing it away or trying to write in too many different notebooks. It sounds busy, but I wouldn’t have accomplished or experienced these things without rest. The restlessness has been in my personal life.
My choice to embrace rest.
The restlessness is found behind scenes of my editing and writing career. I had three back-to-back health problems. One ended in me having surgery and being out on medical leave for most of the summer. My husband had a scare with a life-altering injury. In the middle of all this, my mom suddenly passed away the weekend after my 40th birthday.
As I’m writing this, I’m sick again. There have numerous other setbacks and emergencies that have called my attention away from my plans for editing and writing. My content calendar was left hanging and undone. I hate blank spaces, to-do list items that aren’t checked off and the blinking cursor on my table or spreadsheet. I started to tell myself that I couldn’t do this. It’s too hard for me. I can’t catch a break. I have to keep resting. Then, one day, I stopped my pity party and started paying attention to the people around me. I decided it was time to embrace the season of rest.
The Choice to Rest
I’ve been listening to people on social media and in person. I have to say I’m not alone in the frustrations of feeling behind and disappointed. The steady stream of unpredictable circumstances and emergencies took over my time. I was throwing an adult temper tantrum about them. The temper tantrum and temptation to give up stopped when I started to participate in community. The support and wisdom of others gave me some new things to consider. Because I had allowed myself to rest, I had time to change my perspective and time to grow in my relationship with God and others.
I learned from rest.
The choice to rest has taught me three things.
- Rest allows me to choose to place my trust in God’s control of my circumstances.
- Rest allows me to look to God for guidance and wisdom in any circumstance as I encountered them.
- Rest allows me to have time to do intentional things in the moment the thought comes to me.
Rest allows me to choose to place my trust in God’s control of my circumstances.
It doesn’t matter if the circumstance is predictable or unpredictable; circumstances are not in my control. The way I respond to circumstances is within my control. I can choose to rest in the knowledge that God planned and ordered my life (Psalm 139; Jeremiah 29:11). When I place my trust in my ability to control my life instead of trusting God, I am not resting in the knowledge that God is in control.
Rest allows me to look to God for guidance and wisdom in any circumstance as I encountered them.
In all of the circumstances, I can say that I was there for the person, including myself and my own health issues, in the best way possible to care for the situation. This was possible because I had previously cleared my calendar to allow space for rest. This allowed me to give my undivided attention to the unexpected circumstances as they came one after the other after the other.
Rest allows me to have time to do intentional things in the moment the thought comes to me.
Do the task that comes to mind right now. I have to learn this lesson over and over again. For me currently, the that task is writing this post. Some days that task might be simply writing the working title of a blog post in my journal or sending a friend a text to let her know I’m praying for her. Sometimes, when I’m feeling disappointed in myself, it’s so easy to decide I’ll do that tomorrow. I have learned that if the task comes to mind in this moment then I need to not waste the moment on doing something else. Otherwise, things tend to pile up. When things pile up, I experience feeling behind, disappointed and exhausted.
I’ve learned many things as I experienced the call, the journey and the choice to rest. Rest allows us to think new thoughts, receive new instructions, experience new things and grow in new relationships. It might feel like missing out at first to say no to things. Missing out bring us joy because it allows us to rest. Rest brings us joy because it frees us from distractions and overstimulation. Rest brings us joy because it refreshes our minds, bodies and souls.
Questions to ponder: What kind of stories have you been telling yourself? Do those stories represent reality? Whether your answer is yes or no, how does that impact your decisions, responses, and relationships? How would allowing time for rest refresh your mind, body and soul?
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘Plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope’” (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV).
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