Rest Awhile

The warming of the weather, the little green buds on the trees, the wildflowers springing up - all of these things mean only one thing: it is camping time. 

Throwing my hammock, guitar, and some bare minimal necessities in the back of my car, I headed home for a weekend family camp out at devils' den state park. 

I love everything about my camping family. I love how dad gets up early and has a campfire and hot chocolate ready for me when I venture out of my warm down sleeping back into the cool crisp morning, where the fog is still settled in the valley but the sun will soon rise and sweep it away. 

I love how us three girls make nightly trips to the bath house together, and mom stops in the middle of the path to point out how gorgeous the stars are, popping out one by one as the night gets deeper and darker. 

I love how Kaysi and I become little girls again, playing with sticks in the fire, taking walks by the river, passing the time by swinging in our hammocks, and laughing till our sides hurt when one of us falls out. 

Most of all, I love is conversation that almost always happens after we have been sitting around camp in silence for several minutes:

"I should probably get up and do something," Kaysi says, "but I just don't want to move."

"You don't have to," dad confirms. "That's the great thing about camping."

After another moment of silence, dad drives the point down a little deeper. "At home, we are always busy doing something. But here, we are removed from all that. Distractions."

And it's true. At home, I feel like I need to be doing something all the time. Honestly, if I am not actively doing something, I get bored. But when we are camping, I can sit around for hours and remain perfectly content. No guilt about it. No boredom. Just quietness and peace.

I think we all need the reminder every now and then to take some "vacation" from our busy schedules and just rest. Be without guilt, without boredom, without agenda, but be with God. 

We need to get in that place where we feel like we don't want to move and then just stay there awhile. And might I suggest that the best place to do just that is in the great outdoors. And now is the time to do it - as spring is ripe in the air. Go on a camping trip or build a bonfire in the backyard. Maybe take a walk or go stargazing. Lay out a picnic blanket in the park and ride in the car with your windows rolled down. Go once or twice by yourself, and then take your family or a friend along with you because is rest is something we need to share. Rest needs to be in both solitude and community. 

"There remains a sabbath rest for the people of God...let us make every effort to enter that rest." (Hebrews 4)

Find that place where your soul settles down and you find yourself saying, "I just don't want to move." Listen closely and you might just hear God saying back to you, "You don't have to. Just rest here with me a while."