The Difference Between Restlessness and Restfulness
To Rest is Human. And Divine.
It’s 6:30 am. The clouds slumber, settling in the bowl of the Coatapeque crater lake in Santa Ana, El Salvador. The rising sun awakens the day as she begins her journey toward nightfall.
It’s quiet except for the birds and the occasional low growl of a distant engine that fights against the stillness like a restless child in her mother’s arms.
As I sit here, the ravens are most curious and inspect the edges of the deck. A lone duck cuts a path, cruising in solitude on the calm water.
I know this moment is brief. I do my best to immerse myself in it and listen to God’s voice. “Be still and know that I am God,” he says. “Let go of your concerns. Rest in me. Live in me.”
For me, resting is hard. Rest feels like a waste of time. Rest doesn’t feel creative or a profitable use of time.
Living in Christ means I have the freedom to be creative. Some are content to pursue knowledge (to know); many are pleased to apply what they know to what they do and leave it at that.
I am at my best when I am “making” — a step between knowing and doing where innovation, discovery, and problem-solving occur.
Because you are created in God’s image, you are creative, even if you think you’re not. God is the Great Designer, the one who saw you in your mother’s womb before you were born and the one who had a plan to redeem you before he called creation into existence.
Let that sink in. It’s mind-blowing.
Creativity isn’t limited to the arts, music, or design. Creativity is part of our DNA, unique to who we are as humans. Creativity and making take work. Creating and working tire us, which means we must seek restfulness.
But what does restfulness look like? When God finished his work during the first six days of creation, the Word says he ceased. The Hebrew word can be translated as “to rest” and means “to cease.” He ceased working to enjoy what he accomplished, but did he cease creating?
Unfortunately, the first man’s choice to disobey God left us with a tension we can’t avoid and a condition we must endure daily.
Restlessness comes from the broken state in which we live; restfulness is what we enjoy when we live in Christ to accomplish the good works God planned for us to do. We’re restless because we think we should do more with what we know and achieve more with the time we are given new daily.
Many of us have missed out on the creative part of who we are because we’re focused on knowing and doing. Restfulness occurs when we allow what we know to inspire us, fuel our imaginations, and discover what should be. Restfulness comes after we have finished creating, preparing us for the next stage of making.
Are you familiar with the story of Peter and Jesus from Luke 5 in the Bible? After a long night of fishing (Peter’s creative work), Jesus asks to borrow Peter’s boat to teach people at the edge of the lake in Galilee (Jesus’ creative work).
Peter gets time with Jesus in the boat, and Jesus isolates Peter from work to listen and cease working. When Jesus is finished, he challenges Peter to fish in a new, creative way: Go out into the deep water and let down your nets.
How is this new way of fishing making? It could fail. But what if it succeeded? Jesus challenged Peter to try something new.
The results were astounding, and the catch filled two boats. Do you think Peter ever fished the same way again? Do you think Peter would have tried this without spending time between knowing and doing it?
Restlessness comes from the broken state in which we live; restfulness is what we enjoy when we live in Christ to accomplish the good works God planned for us to do.
Make time to be creative
As you seek to know God, follow Jesus, and let the Holy Spirit guide your life and apply his guiding principles to your lives (doing), set aside time to imagine, dream, make, and create. Your life in Christ is complete as you fill the gap between knowing and doing with dreaming, imagining, and making.
When God rested and ceased creating, he was not just resting from what he accomplished. God rested to prepare for what was to come next.
The splendor of creation pales next to the glory of the resurrection and mighty power of Christ in you.
There’s still time to order copies for Christmas gifts of Essential: A 30-Day Devotional for Faith-Driven Professionals for all the people you know who work and rest.