Rest

I've mentioned in a previous post that I tend to complain a lot about being tired.  Before having my kids I used to need at least eight or nine hours if sleep every night or I was a mess the next day.  While I have adjusted to the perpetual sleep deprivation that comes with parenthood; I think I'm still the same person who loves a good night's rest.  I just rarely get it anymore.  You can ask my husband how often I mention how tired I am in any given day or how I like to point out to him after he wakes up, what time I woke up with the kids that morning.

Lately I've been realizing how often I think about what it would be like to really feel well rested.  I think about how maybe I'll feel better rested when my kids are a bit older and don't need me as much or better yet when they are grown, maybe then I'll be able to kick my feet up.  But I think I am beginning to understand the fallacy of this.  I mean from a spiritual perspective, if I am doing the work the Lord has for me then I am not going to find that rest I am looking for in this lifetime.  I'm not meant to.  I'm not supposed to kick my feet up.  No, instead I should always feel an urgency for the hurt, broken, and lost people all around me.  As long as there are those who don't know the love of Jesus, then there is work to do.  The bible says  "Then he (Jesus)said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few." "(Matthew 9:37 NIV).   I want to be a part of the harvest.  I think that means I need to get used to the feeling of being a bit tired.  If we're working hard then that would be a natural result of hard work.  That's not to say that God does not replenish us and offer us periods of rest.  However those will last for a short time and then we must go back to the work He has for us.

Someday we will die and see Him face to face and then is when we will truly experience the rest we long for.  I look forward to that day.  It helps me to work hard, knowing that some day I will experience that.  Until then however there is much to do and little time to do it.  Time to get to work.  As my husband says to me wisely every time I ask him how he works so hard sometimes and deals with the exhaustion that comes: "You gotta do what you gotta do."