Rest

I was forced to rest this week. Sick with some kind of head cold or whatever seasonal ailment is going around, I found myself doing little other than binge watching House of Cards. Part of me really hated it. I had a mountain of work to do and I only got farther behind with each passing moment. I felt trapped on my couch with barely enough brain power to shoot out an intelligent email. 

But, part of me loved it. I never rest. Never. I move from one action item to the next. I maintain a robust schedule in my day job and I come home to work on my podcast or this website. On the weekends, I write these posts, I clean my house or I catch up on reading. I fill every moment of my life with some accomplishment related task. Being forced to just lie down and not do anything but let my body heal was surreal. I felt like I was doing something wrong the first few days, but as time went on I realized how therapeutic it was not just for my body but my mind and soul, as well.

I'm not alone in this. You're probably the same way. Maybe you're not maniacal enough to set a goal for how many episodes of a TV show you can watch while you're sick, but you probably do something else that's just as ridiculous. You fill your mind constantly with stuff - things to do and places to be. Some of them are important, most of them aren't. But, is there ever a moment when you stop thinking and planning? I've realized that whether it's our culture or our nature, we aren't going to rest unless we're intentional about it. I intend to eliminate the hypocrisy from my request, but for now, I challenge you to rest. Take the weekend or a day or just a moment, and rest.