Rest...

When was the last time you had a good laugh? I think God is constantly laughing. I mean, I tell Him my plans and He laughs. Long and hard. Then He tells me in a not so subtle manner, that I'm not in charge! I guarantee that if I was God, I would have unending amounts of laughter in heaven simply because of the things we say and think here on earth. Like not having another kid for a while. I said that and no sooner had it come out of my mouth than God decided I really needed to enjoy child number 4.
But, speaking of God, someone recently told me that He was "an unrelenting task master, I mean just look at what He was constantly making people do in the Old Testament." I laughed, hard (kind of like when I saw an Intrust Bank sign while it was being constructed: there was the sign saying "Yes, you can bank here." with a large arrow, pointing directly at the port-o-potty. I laughed so hard I almost drove off the road, in fact I had to pull off and stop I was laughing so hard. It was great! But, I wasn't laughing quite that hard at this individual...). The reason I laughed was God may have asked people to do things, but it was only certain times. Just like most businesses expect people to come to them between 9 and 5, not whenever it's convenient for the customer. God asks us to do things for 6 out of 7 days. Day number 7 He gave my absolute favorite command: stop and rest. I love that! God not just asks us to rest, He commands it! How awesome is that? God is telling us to pull out the hammock and lemonade so we can take a load off. But wait, it gets better: every seventh year God told us to take a break and rest. Not only that, but he called for a full year long party every fiftieth year! Talk about the kind of God I like!

But, have you ever noticed how hard it is to stop and actually rest? To sit in the silence? It's actually pretty scary how hard it is to rest. Ipods, blogs, tv, email, radio, it all begs for our attention 24 hours a day and it all creates noise. Have you ever wondered why it seems sometimes like it is so hard to hear God? I know I have and do. The why is simple: God asked us to rest so we could hear Him. He wants us to enjoy his presence in the silence of real rest. When was the last time I did that? I couldn't even begin to tell you, but that's why I'm writing this now...

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