Rest as a Way of Life

Master Naturalist, Eryn Lynum, invites us to live from a place of rest.

Living from a Place of Rest

“Here’s my point: the solution to an overbusy life is not more time. It’s to slow down and simplify our lives around what really matters.”
― John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to stay emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in the chaos of the modern world

I don’t know how to rest.

Doctors have been prescribing periods of rest for decades.

“Take six months off from all leadership roles. Go home and love your little toddler. Do things you’ve never been allowed to do. Sit for 15 minutes a day and do nothing. Write in your journal.”

This wisdom from the caring, wholistically-minded heart of Dr. Gruelke on a Tuesday afternoon in 1988.

At age 28, I went to him broken in body, mind, and spirit.

I wanted him to tell me I had an illness.

Instead, he prescribed rest.

Dealing with an illness would have been easier and less shameful to share with others.

Instinctively, I knew he was right.

I was so lost.

I was so sad.

To this day, I carry Dr. Gruelke in my heart with profound gratitude.

To this day, I wish I had listened and heeded his prescription for rest.

Yes, my Sabbatical from all things “leadership” lasted six months.

But, slowly and subtely, I stepped back into Busyness like an old comfortable pair of shoes.

It was all I knew.

Yet, in 1988, as now in 2024, teachers appeared for me.

God, in His infinite love and care for me, continued to pursue my heart.

Just like He pursues yours.

He longs for us to live from a place of rest.

He longs for us to make rest a way of life.