Lesson 109: I rest in God.
Here in America, we are a society of doers. We do so much that when we take vacations, we come back exhausted and in need of another vacation to recover from the one we just took. We don’t know how to rest. We don’t know how to take a break and do nothing.
This is why the current coronavirus pandemic is so hard for so many people. They are being forced not just to slow down, but often to stop completely. Some are stopping because they lost their jobs, some are going stir crazy because they thrive on the hustle and bustle of their offices and others are going nuts because they enjoy traveling and moving and abhor sitting still.
And here we are – in enforced stillness. It’s no wonder some are losing their minds right now.
It was Blaise Pascal who once keenly noted: “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Even in our enforced solitude, we seek something to take the edge off – Netflix, online meetings, livestreamed performances by our favorite musicians – anything to avoid sitting quietly in a room alone. But, if it’s true that “all of humanity’s problems” are caused by our inability to rest, perhaps this is the opportunity we need to solve our problems. The key to doing that is learning how to rest, according to this lesson.
In this time of pandemic, I want rest more than anything in the world. My boss at my fulltime job urged us all, during a meeting last week, to take some time off. Even though we can’t go anywhere physically on a vacation, she was adamant that each of us needed to take some time for a mental break – time for family, time for ourselves, time to rest. She understands what this lesson is trying to teach us – when we truly take time to rest, we will be better prepared to bring our best back to the world.
No matter what the world looks like around us – and it is pretty bleak and traumatizing at the moment – rest is available, this lesson tells us and if we are smart, we’ll take the time to rest in God – even if it’s for just five minutes a day. This lesson assures us that if we can touch that center of peace within ourselves for even just a moment during that time, the world will be born again and will come even closer to be awakened.
During this time when chaos and fear overtake the outside world around us, it’s imperative – it is our duty and responsibility – to take this kind of rest. If we do, then when this pandemic is over, we will be better prepared to create a more awakened world – a world where we can rebuild our systems – not based on the tired greed, fear and inequity of the past – but based on the peace, joy, love and compassion that we have cultivated in our time of rest.
Bid everyone in the world to rest with you in this moment, this lesson advises. When we do that, we enlarge the peace, the joy and the love we will need to rebuild this world into the “happy dream” that we need to finally achieve the unity we ultimately seek.
St. Catherine of Siena echoes today’s lesson, writing:
“The sun hears the fields talking about effort
and the sun smiles,
and whispers to me,
“‘Why don’t the fields just rest, for
I am willing to do everything
to help them grow?’
“Rest, my dears, in
prayer.”
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash