THE CALL OF REST

Today, it is quiet.

I am the only one home, and the deep spirit part of me is asking for some real quiet.

There are no Hallmark mini-series episodes today (I know, judge me).

There is no music.

I hear my pen mark the page and candle wicks flicker and cars rush past our complex outside.

I am in bed with four books, and I will read and drink my coffee in the quiet,

because my heart is asking me to.

We think we know real quiet, but to actually get there?

It’s quite a vulnerable journey,

and even painful, if we’re honest.

But then the quiet comes.

She graces us with her presence and we wonder how we could ever do anything without her helping us along.

Yes, the voice that our souls speak with today is saying,

“Please, find the quiet so I can get some rest.”

Our poor hearts, how we neglect them.

And we ask ourselves what a Sabbath actually is– a Sunday afternoon nap, a few seconds without the blare of the television screen?

Maybe we’re not giving Sabbath the flexibility she deserves.

Sabbath isn’t always just one long day of dawn-to-dusk rest.

Sabbath happens for us on a quiet morning,

during an afternoon nap,

on a family hike.

Sabbath quiet knows our hearts, perhaps better than we do, and if we choose to meet with her wherever we are,

we may find our world quieted and refilled and repurposed for all things good.

The challenge is to draw that curtain open in the first place,

to step into unknown mystery, difficult mystery,

and hear those heart words.

Then, a new spring green emerges in us.

Hallelujah and amen.

“…long ago in the quiet of the world, where there was less noise and more green…”

–The Hobbit