“We envy a person at rest and at peace within themselves — a person who is confident and present — but we overlook the fact that that person’s ability to be present and alive and even joyful in the moment is often not because of their circumstances. They’ve cultivated a better rest of the soul.”- Sara Hagerty
And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”- Matthew 17:4 (ESV)
“Glorious, indeed is the world of God around us, but more glorious the world of God within us.”- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In Chapter 12 (“A Better Way: Becoming Ourselves”) of The Gift of Limitations, Sara Hagerty notes what happens when we taste a moment of being fully alive and fully ourselves. We firmly believe that the landscape made us that way. As a result, we keep reaching back. Like Peter, we desire to experience God at His brightest, bathing us in His light.
Above all, Sara states, we reach for the rest of the soul like it’s a rounded stone heading downhill. And bounding faster still each day. Yet, even though the stone remains in sight, we fail to nab it or catch up to it. Hence, we race after it. But in our efforts toward that soul rest, we actually work ourselves out of rest. Out of the real and better rest. Because we fixate on a glorious and restful time in our lives. Because during that period we feel alive and unchallenged in our bodies, minds, and schedules.
In conclusion, Sara explains, we need a better rest:
“The better rest comes to the one who knows themselves within the context of God’s story for them, the rest of the dreamer who is leaning into God’s vision with Him. Not a romantic rest, dependent on the external, but something welling up from within. The rest of a settled soul.”
Today’s question: At what times do you feel you’ve cultivated a better rest? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “God orchestrates the fence”