{"id":123,"date":"2014-03-02T19:35:47","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T02:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=123"},"modified":"2014-03-02T19:35:47","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T02:35:47","slug":"rest-is-good-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=123","title":{"rendered":"Rest is Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>Today has been a laid back day for me, which is probably good. Debbie has been with me today since the weather cleared up. It was also good to have some visitors come by this afternoon.<\/p>\n

I did get some goo\"Ken_Kim<\/a>d rest periods in trying to manage my fatigue. It is interesting how we view and approach the concept of rest. A few weeks ago a friend of mine referenced this idea of rest and energy management that I had discussed in one of my posts. He said how as an executive he was learning how important energy management\u00a0 was for him without the medical issues that I am dealing with.<\/p>\n

Rest is reflected in the Biblical concept of Sabbath. This concept is easily misunderstood. For example a little boy responding on a Bible quiz said, (actually wording and spelling) \u201cIn the first book of the Bible Guinessis, God got tired of creating the world He took the Sabbath off.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 For many of us our understanding isn\u2019t much better. A Sabbath can mean we stay busy at others things than just our Monday through Friday work. I admit that I tend to push this issue in my life and that is perhaps why I find myself getting rest reactively instead of proactively.<\/p>\n

For example, I recall a few weeks ago my at-home physical therapist after seeing that my level of strength was weakening and my fatigue increasing, said, \u201cTomorrow is Sunday, I don\u2019t want you working out.\u201d <\/em>I said, \u201cOkay, I will just do upper body exercises then.\u201d <\/em>To which he responded, \u201cNo, I said no<\/strong> exercises for tomorrow!\u201d <\/em>Just today one of the weekend occupational therapists (Kim pictured with me above) said, \u201cI will see you next weekend if you are on the schedule.\u201d <\/em>I said, \u201cIf I\u2019m not doing anything, I might as well not do anything at home.\u201d <\/em>One of the aides close by said, \u201cKen! That\u2019s not how it works!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Making the Sabbath work for us is God\u2019s intention. I recall reading a book during a leadership class in my masters work on the concept of the Sabbath written by a Mennonite minister. So it is obvious that there is a lot of material to cover on this principle. I like the three R\u2019s of the Sabbath. Rest, reflection and renewal.<\/p>\n

God made the Sa<\/strong>bbath a Holy Day by resting<\/strong> from His work.It is important to realize that the Creator has designed our lives to have an ebb and flow of activity. I remember in one of my pastorates hearing of a man who \u201cnever takes a day off\u201d and \u201cgets by with very little sleep.\u201d I wanted to say,\u201cwell that\u2019s stupid.\u201d But I let that be my inside voice. It wasn\u2019t long before this individual was out of commission for about a week because he was sick.<\/p>\n

Reflection is an important aspect for our lives<\/strong>. The Bible says, God looked at His work of creation and saw that it was good. Solomon said, that finding pleasure in work is a gift from God. It is important in our work regardless of how our effectiveness is measured to be able to stop, look back and to have some degree of satisfaction in what we have accomplished, in what we have achieved. This is all part of God\u2019s plan for a healthy balance in our lives.<\/p>\n

Proper rest and reflection brings a renewed energy and commitment to the tasks that are before us<\/strong> in the coming week. We are able to focus on what needs to be improved and to stay focused on what is helping us to be effective.<\/p>\n

My first prayer before the State House of Representatives in 2005, I shared these three R\u2019s since it was near the close of the legislative session. I reminded legislators that the \u201cenergizer bunny is not their role model for a balanced life.\u201d That statement earned me my first newspaper quote, although it was applied out of context as me admonishing legislators to get their work done and go home. At any rate the concepts remain sound and based on the truth of God\u2019s Word. And when we have God\u2019s Word as the basis for our lives we won\u2019t burn out or rust out in both the divine and natural calling for our lives. It also prepares us for the ultimate Sabbath rest in God\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n

BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;<\/em> \u00a0for anyone who enters God\u2019s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.\u00a0Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest\u2026\u201d.<\/em> (Heb. 4:9-11)<\/p>\n

PLEASE PRAY FOR\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Healing of infection<\/p>\n

Strength for therapy sessions<\/p>\n

Muscles strength<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Today has been a laid back day for me, which is probably good. Debbie has been with me today since the weather cleared up. It was also good to have some visitors come by this afternoon. I did get some good rest periods in trying to manage my fatigue. It is interesting how we view […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}