340 – Should I take a short rest or a long rest?

#faithbites #faithjourney #D&D short

I like role-playing games as I can be anyone or anything I want and do things well beyond my mortal abilities. In most games there is a concept of rest between battles or activities. in Dungeons and Dragons, among others, there is the concept of a short rest or a long rest.

A short rest is a bit over an hour. During this time you can heal a little and get ready for the next encounter. You don’t get any of your spells back, you aren’t fully rested, and there isn’t a lot of time to prepare for what’s coming next.

A long rest is usually 8 hours or more. During this time you can heal fully, you get all your spells back, you can do major preparations, and are fully ready for the next encounter.

When I look at my life lately, it feels like a series of short rests with very few long rests. Meaning that while I’m still moving and getting things done, I am not fully rested nor do I have all of my gifts at the ready.

Are you getting enough of your long rests?

Scripture

• By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. – Genesis 2:2-3
• In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat– for he grants sleep to those he loves. – Psalm 127:2
• “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed. – Exodus 23:12

Reflection

All of creation took 6 days. It was so exhausting that even the Lord almighty took a long rest. If God needs a long rest, shouldn’t we have one as well? In the Psalm we even see that sleep is granted out of love from God. Then why do we not take him up on this gift? In Exodus, not only are we told to rest, but to allow our animals, slaves, and foreigners to be refreshed. God not only gave us rest but gave it to everyone from the lowly animals to slaves and foreigners. Yet, we still do not take a long rest.

I can go a long long time on short rests. I can check off boxes and do what needs to be done. But each day that a long rest is not had, I feel my compassion waning. It’s as if I just don’t have the fuel, even though I’ve eaten, to keep going.

The question I have to ask myself, is it worth it? Sure there are times when a short mental rest is all you need but in the long term, we may causing more damage than it is worth.

Charge

How often do you get a long rest? One that truly restores you and enables you to use all of your gifts? Maybe that one task or two that you are giving up sleep for, isn’t worth it. Take one day to yourself. If not a full day, try to get some rest that is filling and restorative.

Lord, let me understand that rest is a gift from you. Help me to make the tough choices to say no so that I may have a restorative long nap. Give me strength to know that resting is not a weakness but a way to be stronger in all things through you.