By Allison Vines, Director of Care

My grandfather used to say to me, “I’m tired, but I’m not sleepy.” As a little girl that sentence confused me. I thought that if you were tired you needed to go to bed. What he was saying was that his body and mind were tired but he was still awake. He needed to rest but wasn’t ready to sleep for 8 hours. There's a difference between tired and sleepy, and we can find rest in that space.

There are multiple meanings of the word rest: sleep, freedom from activity or labor, a state of motionless or inactivity, peace of mind or spirit. I’ll add one more: Jesus. Jesus gives us rest. In fact, he promises us rest. “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11.28.

You may have noticed yourself thinking, How can I be so tired? I haven’t gone anywhere. I haven’t done much today. All I do is stay home. We need rest not only from physical labor but from emotional and spiritual labor. Our minds are constantly at work. Constantly working to process the daily news, the daily schedule, when to order groceries so that they can be picked up at a certain time, when to wear a mask, when to close the computer for the day. We need rest.

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11.29

Jesus is inviting you, asking you, to rest with him. He offers this to you as a gift. This is a hard gift to accept. We have taught ourselves that rest equals laziness or apathy. We tell ourselves that if we have time to rest then we should be filling it with productivity. Okay, that’s not entirely wrong. The opportunity here is to consider what is most productive. Engage your soul in rest with Jesus because Jesus tells you to. Are you tired but not sleepy? Good! Rest with Jesus.