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The other Friday night my wife was out for the evening with her sisters. It had been a tiring week, with emotionally draining conversations and too many demands on my time to pray or process them properly. In my mind there were a few jobs that needed doing around the house and in my heart there was a nagging, formless anxiety. Just before she left, Felicity wisely advised me not to try to get things done, but to rest. I spent the evening trying to cram in all the different, restful things that immediately came to mind.
I played a game with our daughters (genuinely restful) and then settled them into bed. Afterwards I wanted to spend some time in prayer and thought, going over the week, read a spiritual book I had been finding encouraging and a page-turner of a novel whose pages had gone unturned. Then there was a sci-fi TV series I was enjoying. Friends had recommended about a dozen movies that sounded really good. All this along with heating up a pizza and chilling out. By the end of the evening I was angry, frustrated and full of self-pity. It had been neither refreshing nor restful, neither godly nor glorious!
How do we rest in the world of frenetic activity? How do we rest in the way Jesus calls us to rest? How do we rest in a way that leaves our souls refreshed, our hearts overflowing with love, our minds at peace and with space for creative thought, and our hands willing to do good works? For me, one answer is the sea.
There is a powerful convergence of Scripture and Creation that gives deep refreshment to heart, mind, body and soul.
‘I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.’
These are the opening lines of Sea Fever by John Masefield. At school I had to memorise the poem and the first two lines have been with me ever since and rise to my mind whenever I see the ocean’s grey swell or sparkling wave crests. I loved reading C.S. Forester’s Hornblower stories as a boy, with the shy, awkward sailor turning his frigate’s bows towards the danger of storm or battle in Nelson’s era. I have clear childhood memories of a trip on a friend’s sailing yacht. I was in a bed down in the cabin, rocked by the swell and looking up through the hatch at the burning stars and burning cigar ends as my dad and his friend sailed the boat through the night.
‘For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.’
This line from Habakkuk 2v14 is the other one that comes to mind when I set eyes on the sea. Since the Lord saved me as a young man, my delight in the sea has deepened, for I know the One who ‘puts the deep in storehouses’ (Psalm 33v7). Last week was as busy as the previous one. We had friends staying for the weekend and so Friday night was lovely, and yet I was so tired. On Saturday we drove up to Overstrand on the North Norfolk coast and walked along the cliffs to Cromer. Fish and chips on the beach, a sandcastle epically defended against the late winter tides, a wind blowing and ice creams despite the cold, and my soul was full of praise, joy, light and wonder at the resurrection.
Of course the way we rest is not the sea but Christ. My point is that there is a powerful convergence of Scripture and Creation that gives deep refreshment to heart, mind, body and soul. Christ is the one who spoke Creation into being. Christ is the subject and hero of the Spirit-wrought Bible. To bring Scripture and Creation together is a powerful gift to us. It is a gateway into Christ’s goodness and glory that lifts us from the busy pace of life, fears and anxieties of a world spiralling out of control, and the pain of walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
For you it may be the mountains, woods, park or field. Where do you dream of being when it feels as though work or life will break you? As you unravel in the face of the worries and demands of your life, where does Christ call you so that he might draw you together again in his love? For even Christ himself knows the blessing of such rest.
Towards the start of his ministry Jesus had many demands, not least the need to appoint the twelve apostles. His response was to seek his Father (and what else is rest but a soul-seeking of our God?). Luke records, ‘In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God’ (Luke 6v12).
Surely Christ wanted peace and uninterrupted time with his Father, and the mountain would supply both. Yet praying through the night would most likely guarantee these anyway. We are not told why Jesus chose the mountain, yet he does seem to like them. He called Abraham, Moses and others to meet him on mountains; he preached and prayed on them himself. He knew that the Creation is part of our walk with the Creator. We would be silly not to follow our Lord into his world.
This will take time, thought and, most-difficult, a turning aside from busyness. I know that I will serve Christ more faithfully and joyfully if I leave my desk and appointments each day to walk the country lanes around my home. I know I should get to the sea more often. I must deny myself, my desire to work my own significance, to rest. Yet what a Lord, who has set the lonely sea in my soul. It is really not that hard.
These 30 devotions from author John Hindley have been specifically designed to help you to rest in the Lord’s goodness and glory during your time away so that you can return home feeling refreshed spiritually as well as physically. You can pick and choose which devotions to read depending on the type of vacation you are on and there are also optional family activities and questions linked to each devotion. Find out more here.
John Hindley is the pastor of BroadGrace church in Norfolk, UK and the author of the bestselling Serving without Sinking. He studied for ministry at Oak Hill College, and then co-founded The Plant church in Manchester before moving to Norfolk. John is married to Flick and they have three children.
