Come to Me...and I will give you rest

Although what we learned about conflict, adversity and stress are all critical and very important issues that we will face as we go out into the mission field, I would have to say the session that God really used to start to do heart surgery on me was our day on Embracing rest and Sabbath Keeping.

Those of you who know me well, know that I am one of those people who always keeps going and going...I'm not very good at just taking time to rest and stop trying to constantly check things off of my checklist. One day one of the trainers said this to us:

"If you have so much to do that you can't rest then think about this: what are you trying to prove to whom"

When she said this she was stressing the importance of resting and she wasn't talking about sleeping...she was talking about resting in the LORD and about turning off the phone, computer,putting away the checklist and being with the LORD. On our day talking about rest and Sabbath, Robin pretty much told us to take our Bibles and sheets with some questions and go be alone with God, He made us leave our phones, computers, ipods, etc because he wanted us to get away and not worry about all the things that we have to do and get away with the LORD, because the reality of it all is that email can wait or seeing if you have a new supporter can wait till the end of the day but we need to rest in the LORD.

So that morning Robin had us go off by ourselves in the building. I have to admit this was very hard for me to be all myself with no computer or ipod but I could feel the LORD knocking on my heart but I just sat there quietly waiting but honestly it was hard for my to focus. Then Robin said that we didn't have to come back to class till the late afternoon and challenged us to go outside near MTI and continue to seek the LORD. So I decided to walk down to Palmer Lake and sit down by the lake. I can say that God met me there:) I have to admit that I came to SPLICE, exhausted and honestly spiritually worn out and I hadn't not taken purposeful time to have a Sabbath and just rest. If you would have asked me how my walk was, I would have told you I was fine because I had been spending a lot of time doing things for God and talking about God but the thing is that I hadn't been spending time to get away from all the stuff I have to do and BE WITH God. God kinda rocked my world while I was sitting down by this little pond. He reminded me that He doesn't want the stuff I do or me to just talk about Him all the time...HE me to BE WITH HIM. He reminded me of his great love for me and reminded me of the fact that to come to him I don't have to have it all together. One of my classmates at SPLICE conveyed this perfectly: In offering God Nothing, I am actually offering Him Everything. God wants us not our things, He wants US!

We sang this song one morning and I have had it on repeat since I've been back and I think that it also goes along well with this subject...enjoy!




I was thankful for the reminder and importance of taking a Sabbath. It's not about being lazy and not doing anything but its about recharging and spending time with the one who sustains us! I will tell you that I am making it a priority to have a Sabbath each week and get away from the checklists, phone calls, support raising and noise, so I can get alone with my Savior. I challenge you all to make taking a Sabbath a priority, because it will change your walk with the LORD!