Doing Nothing

Cybernun — Sun, 27 Feb 2005 03:18:36 +0000

Out on a two-lane highway, Sister Elizabeth and I caught a glimpse of a sign that made us do a double-take. It was on the edge of a cemetery, a country churchyard, and on both sides it proclaimed the same message to passersby and the graves round about:

NOTHING IS AS
TIRESOME
AS DOING NOTHINGHad the cemetery residents been led astray when they were encouraged to rest in peace? I was reminded of a parent prodding slothful offspring who were blissfully dozing away a summer morning.A 19th century immigrant, Francis Grund, had this to say about Americans: “There is, probably, no people on earth with whom business constitutes pleasure, and industry amusement, in an equal degree with the inhabitants of the Unites States of America. Active occupation is not only the principal sources of their happiness, and the foundation of their national greatness, but they are absolutely wretched without it, and instead of the ‘dolce far niente,’ know but the horrors of idleness” (Francis J. Grund, The Americans in Their Moral, Social and Political Relations, 1837).While it is true that we are created to need meaningful activity, we are also made to need times of doing nothing — resting in peace, not as dead, but alive in God. If our daily work is intended to reflect the work of the Creator, then we are to rest, according to the Ten Commandments and Genesis 2:2-3, because God rested on the seventh day of creation. God’s way of being is always the wellspring for our own.What is rest? It is not just the absence of activity. Rest is knowing that God is Creator, and that God rests. Rest is taking time to be alone with the One who loves us completely and unconditionally. Rest is freedom not only from work, but from all that fatigues: from fear, from guilt, from trying to be God. Rest is being enfolded in the arms of my heavenly Father/Mother who will help me pick up the pieces of my mistakes, because I am too small to do it all by myself. Rest is being assured that in spite of sin, as Julian of Norwich hears Jesus say, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
(Matthew 11:28-30)

O Joyful Rest!

Cybernun — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 04:47:01 +0000

There seems to be a thriving internet market for posters, bumper stickers, lapel buttons, and refrigerator magnets emblazoned with the caption:

JESUS IS COMING
LOOK BUSYAs tongue-in-cheek as these may be, I fear that the “look busy” injunction taps into something deeply ingrained in the human (or at least the American) psyche. If we are not noticeably industrious, so we are told, then our lives are worthless.

Consider the spirit of the old hymn by Anna L. Coghill (not an American, but an Englishwoman):

Work, for the night is coming,
Work through the morning hours;
Work while the dew is sparkling,
Work ’mid springing flowers…

In the second verse the work continues through noon, and even, in the third verse, “under the sunset skies.” God is never mentioned in this call to ceaseless labor.

The look-busy and keep-busy approach can extend also to the human spirit. I am lax – even perhaps in mortal danger – if I relax for a moment in my interior toil directed toward my virtue and well-being or that of my loved ones. This often translates into constant worry. I must make myself worthy of salvation, lest by negligence I be lost forever. What is more, if I notice that I am not worrying about something, I become anxious that I am not doing enough to satisfy the demanding will of God.

My refrigerator magnet

If I were to promote a refrigerator magnet or button, my choice would be one that proclaims,

JESUS IS COMING
O JOYFUL REST!The One to whom we say, “Come,” says also to us, “Come to me… and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). It is because Jesus comes, because Jesus is in fact always here, that I can rest.

What is rest?

But what is rest? Collapsing in front of the television? More than that, surely.

Rest is knowing that if I could make myself worthy of salvation, I wouldn’t need Jesus. But I cannot – and I don’t have to!

At home in God with Jesus, rest is freedom from all that fatigues: from fear, from trying to be God.

Rest is being enfolded in the arms of my heavenly parent, at peace with knowing I am too small to deal with my own mistakes and sins all by myself.

Rest is knowing that, as Julian of Norwich says, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” Sin is real, and so is pain, but all shall be well.

Rest is trusting that God is working out the divine purpose in the universe and in my own heart, although it is obvious that neither is finished yet, according to human time. Rest is knowing that the fulfillment of God’s cosmic plan is not up to me, although I do have a role to play in it.

Rest is knowing that there is a time for waiting, and that waiting bears fruit, whether it is waiting for crops, waiting for the birth of a child, or waiting for God’s good pleasure in God’s own time.

So we say, not frantic, not fearful, but in peaceful expectation, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

(Matthew 11:28-30)

Caught Up in God » Rest

Doing Nothing

O Joyful Rest!