“You guys ever hear of the three kinds of rest, for our body, soul, and spirit?”
We were all gathered together in one apartment at the hotel in Thailand, the whole lot of us, just come from various places in our home country, most people sitting on the floor. Our leader was telling us what the priorities should be for our time at the retreat. He said we should sleep, do whatever it is that our mind and heart needs to do to recharge, and connect with the Lord.
I went into the trip pretty worn out. I could tell; I was getting annoyed at small things, I was having weird thoughts, I was just tired and lacking vision. I really needed a break. The first couple of days I didn’t feel any better, and I was tempted to get impatient. The good news is that I’ve learned something about rest these past two years–you can’t force it, you just gotta put yourself in position for it and let God bring it to you. So I hung on, and slowly, like a kid with a flat bike tire and a hand pump, I started to come ’round.
It reminds of me of a good, soaking rain. It doesn’t all get saturated at once; in fact, if the ground’s hard, it couldn’t soak in a hard rain and would just flood. We need times of soaking, of slow restoration.
Well, I came back hitting the ground running. I spent the whole first night chatting with an old friend from my first year here, getting only two hours of sleep, and saw him off to the airport the next morning. Then that evening Jaws and I took off for a friend’s home six hours away. We spent the next day with him, then took off early the following morning to visit another friend another six hours away. That evening we celebrated the Spring Festival with him (Sean). Two days later we were home again.
Now, a couple of days later, we’ve just begun a 14-day Winter Session, where we as a city group get together to meet with God and hear some teaching. I’m looking forward to getting some direction for the coming months, but even more, I’m still crying out to the Lord for a touch from Him. I feel like I need a breakthrough in some areas on the personal level. He’s the One I need!