Rest part one

The day I had my stroke was a day like many others. I had woken up with a terrible headache, but I thought, i need to do this or that. I was pushing myself to do more than my body could do. If I am honest, there was a part of me wondering if I could listen to my body and just rest. The logical part of me was pushing to keep going, make the money we need and my life subsequently changed. My perspective has changed as well.

I think of me in 2019 and had two jobs, homeschooling, teaching Bible studies..I know now that this is an impossible pace to keep up. Rest has to be a part of life. I do a lot more resting than I ever have before and know this pace I am on right now is good.

I also struggled with the hidden part of pain others cannot see. You can’t see my pain in my body, you can’t see a migraine. I may hobble more now, but really if you didn’t see the exhaustion in my eyes, you would have no idea. So I thought, in some strange way, I needed to keep pushing myself.

I’ve read books on rest. I have tried to practice Sabbath, I find this passage today, such a comfort.

“At that time Jesus passed through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick and eat some heads of grain. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath! ” He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry — how he entered the house of God, and they ate the sacred bread, which is not lawful for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests? Or haven’t you read in the Law that on Sabbath days the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent? But I tell you that something greater than the temple is here! If you had known what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.””
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭8‬ ‭HCSB‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/72/mat.12.1-8.HCSB

The disciples eat and by their movement it is considered work by the Pharisees and unlawful. I can’t imagine how exhausting it must have been for the Pharisees, scribes and Sadducees running after Jesus trying to catch him in a snare. I look at this interaction and Jesus cares more for the person and their hearts. Jesus knows all the stories and he describes a situation where David and his men were starving. And more than the letter of the law here, Jesus wants them to see necessity over law.

Walk in the truth of the word, not in extra laws and nonsense. Ooo, what do you think? I’d love to hear. i need to stop for today, but I’ll pick this up for tomorrow.