Day 1: Refreshing Restorative Rest

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world revolves. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

I'm taking a good long rest after the marathon of Christmas preparation.  How about you?

I'm sitting here drinking coffee from my brand new, big plaid Christmas mug.  You don't know how good it feels to just sit, and reflect, and soak in the moments.  I've been waiting for this so long.  It's like sitting and listening to the creative whispers of God.  Let me explain.

Rest takes several forms.   

First Off, Our Body Needs Rest.

We work hard.  We play hard.  And we bairly out run our exhaustion. It isn't sustainable.

We are a nation running on empty, sleep deprived, and our brain's working at less than 50%. So we juice it up.

Diversion, Overload, Living All Wired Up. We are Pavlov's dog. Most of us are on the verge of a break down, and we don't even know it. Then, we go to the Doctor to 'make it so.'

We need structured rest. We are created for it. It's written in our DNA. We cheat the night with our artificial life, or do we?

I need 9 hours of good quality sleep a night. How about you?  We're all unique.  But we're all running at a deficit.


We Desperately Need Rest: Physically, Socially, and Spiritually

We need time to process, time to think deeply, time to feel deeply, and decide what's really important to us.  

But not any ole time will do. As I was reading this article, Joe used a word I was not familiar with, but understood from Greek.  I was in prison ministry, Kairos, meaning a special, or set apart time.  The word Joe used was liminality, or "the space betwixt and between."  In Greek there are two words for time, Chronos which is chronological time and Kairos,  which is liminality, or the threshold. It is time and space at "the intersection of Eternity," 'a space in time.'

Our language, English is built on verbs, or action, ie Chronos.  We have great difficulty with being still.  In contrast, the Chinese language is built on nouns, or permenance, ie. Kairos.  Hence, our seeing the Chinese as a mystery culture.

We shape our words, and then our words shape us.

What I'm saying is this:

Rest In The Burning Bush ~ The Place of Creative Whispers

We all need the Rest, Refreshment, and Restoration that comes from Kairos time, that intersection with Eternity.  It begins as a state experience of rest. We've all had it. On a vacation, at Christmas, when God broke through, that special moment when time stands still.  So with that mindset, check out Hebrews 4, and see if it makes more sence to you.  God wants us to move into a dwelling place of rest with Him. Now that takes time. Kairos time. Transformation time. Like Eden, (the prototype), working without sweat, God wants our work to be from a place of rest in Him. Now that Rocks!  That's revolutionary.

And it's not just for the mystics, those exceptional saints.  It's for Every Believer. And God warns us. He commands us to enter in. Every single one of us. Read Hebrews 3 & 4 and make the leap.  Step off into God.

This isn't esoteric hogwash. It's why the hunter sits all day in his tree stand. It's why the fisherman sits all day by a pond. Think about it. Karios.

~*~*~*~

If you've found this helpful, You might enjoy:


Kairos Time In a Chronos World  ~ A pastor/worker's struggle.

Living On Kairos Time  ~ Robert Caldwell's reflections

Chronos Kairos and Tea Breaks  ~ Kurt Simonson is an artist and assistant professor of photography at Biola University 

Get some extra sleep and make room for Kairos time in your life.  

Oh Taste and See that the LORD is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him. Ps. 34