Work, Rest, and Good Friday

Work. Rest. Work. Rest.

Such has been my pattern this past month. If I've had time to write, I was too tired too... If I haven't had time to write, I've been longing to. It's been a good, productive month - and Lord knows, I'm as thankful as I am tired.

Today, I am working from home. Tim is away for the weekend, and although I would never choose to forego his company, I do intend to make great use of his absence! So continues the balancing act... work, rest, work, rest.

- - -

There's a large transition going on at work, which impacts several people - including myself. I'm actually transitioning from the department I've worked in for the past 17 months, into a new department right across the hallway. I'll still be an AA, but I'll be working directly with our 'Congregational Care' ministry... it's a ministry I've never worked alongside of before, and I'm coming into my new role with a lot of excitement, fear, joy, and anxiety. Such is life, such is me ;) Nothing new there.

The difference is that while I'm training for my new role, I'm also training the new hire for my previous position.

The great thing about working with other Christ-followers is that when big transitions like this happen, you definitely feel a safety net of grace and support - for which I'm incredibly grateful. To have so many details entrusted to me during this time is both an honor, and a large responsibility. I'm not only wanting to hold all the pieces together - but to exit one role and enter a new one, with equal integrity looking forward and backward.

It's great. It's a challenge. I'm happy. I'm tired. I also feel like I'm wave-surfing, at times... which is an odd experience, when you're wearing business casual clothes, carrying a stack of ministry-related brochures through the catacomb hallways of a baptist church.

- - -

I'm in need of a Holy Spirit who can dwell in me, hold me steady, and empower me with strength I do not have on my own.

I'm in need of a wisdom I don't possess, and a memory sufficient enough to store all the details people are counting on me to remember.

I'm in need of rest. Good sleep, improved health, uninterrupted quiet times, and quality time with my husband.

I'm in need of nature. Sunshine, rain, grass, flowers, the shade of trees, and the wind on my face. The chirping of birds in the morning, and of crickets at night.

I'm in need of my husband. His phonecalls, his humor, his back rubs - and yes, at times, his shoulder to cry a few tears on, as I strive to live this life well.

Work. Rest. Work. Rest.

- - -

Last weekend, I made a decision to hop on a plane and visit my cousins Matt and Ginger in Charleston, SC. It was a deliberate choice, strategically built into the structure of all that's going on at work. Travel (when done well) equals rest, to me... and so does having frequent flyer miles :) Their company and conversation were a joy. We were outdoors the majority of the weekend, and did a ton of walking through the city. The flowers in Charleston were showing off for me, I'm firmly convinced... It pours life into my soul, to be surrounded by God's creativity in the form of blossoms and petals.

It was difficult to see the weekend come to an end, but as Scripture makes clear to us (in Ecclesiastes, among other places) there is a time for everything under the sun. A time for work. A time for rest.

And so it goes.

- - -

Today is Good Friday, and as mentioned earlier, I am not going into the office today. I'll be doing some work from home, but I'll be in sweatpants, with a pretty candle lit, and an iced coffee beside me.

And I'll be listening to music that brings peace to my heart. Music that testifies to what this day means to me, as a follower of Christ. How it all fits together... what He did on the cross, how much He loved me to have done it, and how it impacts this pattern of work and rest that I find myself in, even today.

It has always been impossible for any one of us to hold anything truly together, without Christ... and it still is. I am finite, I come to an end... as Sara Groves says in one of her songs. It's the way He designed it. We have a need for God, so much more real than our need to breathe, or work, or rest.

... For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son - that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Would not perish, at the end of our lives... or the end of our days. Would not perish underneath the burdens we carry, nor underneath the weight of our responsibilities. Would not perish in the wake of our own humanity, nor by the hand of our own mistakes.

Would not perish... but have life.

I'm heavily relying on these promises today - that Christ's love, and what He did on the Cross for me, is still accomplishing its work in my life today. I'm relying on the promise that His yoke is easy on us, and His burden is light. That when when the day requires a strength that causes my knees to buckle underneath me, He is still waiting there for me where I fall.

This is what Good Friday means for me, this year especially... that life abundant is only found, and always will be, at the foot of His cross.

Rejoice... oh my soul, rejoice.