Summer, rest, and restlessness

July 3, 2020 Jonathan Pearson

Summer, rest and restlessness. Summer holidays. A fresh breeze at the end of a stuffy term. The tests are over, the essays handed in and it’s time to sit back and relax. Now you can sweat; not because of hard work, but just the body’s gentle cooling in response to the sun. Rest. The break we need from the pressures of normal life. It’s what we were created for – the joyful sabbath rest described in the paradise of Genesis 2.

“This is not rest, this is idleness.”

And yet, after a week of mindlessly scrolling the internet and arguing with family, something doesn’t feel right. The mind slows. The more I sleep the more tired I feel. God feels distant. This is not rest, this is idleness. Rather than the rest of Genesis 2, we find ourselves in the restlessness of Genesis 3 and the fallen human history that follows. Moses reflecting on the effects of the fall says,

“For all our days pass away under your wrath;

we bring our years to an end like a sigh.

The years of our life are seventy,

or even by reason of strength eighty;

yet their span

is but toil and trouble;

they are soon gone, and we fly away.”

Psalm 90:9-10

Toil and trouble, toil and trouble... and gone. It would seem even our modern

technology and entertainment can’t restrain the effects of the fall.

So what do we do? Well perhaps this is not about what we do. Perhaps God made it this way to help us see our place in the world. Perhaps we need to realize that the good life we long for is beyond our grasp. Even in the summer holidays. All our days pass away under his wrath.

But is there hope? Is there a way to redeem my summer holiday?

If there were, would it not be God who had it? Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” (John 14:27). Although we don’t have the rest that we were made for and life’s troubles carry on around us, there is a stillness to be found in the midst of it. Peace is found in the hope Jesus gives. He is worthy of our attention this summer.

And there’s more. The story doesn’t end with us trying to stay calm amidst the trouble. The story ends with glorious rest in a new creation. Hebrews puts it this way: “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God... Let us therefore strive to enter that rest” (Heb 4:9,11).

One day toil and trouble will be but a memory.

Summer holidays are not all toil and trouble. May we enjoy the good bits! And may the restless frustration of this world direct our hope heavenwards, to Jesus and his coming new creation. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.