Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
The last few weeks, I’ve shared some thoughts about vacation with you while I am away on vacation. (Don’t worry, I wrote this all ahead of time!)
This week, I want to invite us to think about rest and how it really works for us.
Scientists have studied how our bodies work in the process of going on vacation. They find it takes several days into a vacation to shed the normal anxiety of our regular lives. Before we can really start to feel like we are on vacation. To let all that junk go. It takes about three or four days to relax and another three or four to feel the flow.
Then, on the other end, our brains start to prepare to get back in. A week out, our brains sort of remember what “normal” is and then three days later, start to prepare us for reintegration to our normal lives.
So, for those who take a two week vacation, we might get a day or two of real vacation. And when we take a day or two here and there, we never get the full effect of vacation.
This puts a really different frame for me on what Sabbath means for us. Sabbath is the day of rest each week. The respite from the daily grind. But if our brains take so long to truly rest, then what does it mean that so few of us actually get to experience it? What does it mean for us to be so starved of rest and the opportunity to recuperate? And what of all of these exceptions we’ve made for the Pandemic time?
With love,
Drew