rest | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Jesus Promises Us Rest (and an Easy Yoke!)

By Anita Mathias

He was the cleverest human who ever lived, a master of

humour, and of literary devices such as paradox, as when he

offers the weary and burdened, rest. Rest–by bearing his yoke.

Bearing the yoke of Jesus means developing the habit of checking

in with him before we speak, act or commit ourselves. For he

always has a surprisingly better, more efficient way of doing things

and will show us all the things that simply do not need to be done.

Jesus promises us rest if we learn gentleness and humility

from him. As we never fully master a language, gardening

or writing, we, the naturally fiery, cranky, worn-out and

hot-tempered, will keep learning gentleness all our lives. “Oops,

I’ve slipped again. I will arise and go to Jesus. Jesus, please

help me for the next minute.” Desperate arrow prayers!

Jesus is too kind to demand massive behaviour modification

to layer onto the burdens he promises us deliverance from—many

self-imposed, stemming from our pride and desire to impress.

He promises us the Spirit, a helper, a seed, and living water within us,

whose fruit is gentleness, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

faithfulness and self-control, as the Apostle Paul writes.

We acquire the Spirit’s power to change, firstly, by asking for it.

Jesus says that as a good father wouldn’t deny his hungry child

food, his Father will not refuse us the Spirit when we ask.

Does praying for God’s spirit work? Yes, it does. Will he come?

He will. But it takes daily prayer, for we leak.

Secondly, we must prioritise praying for the Spirit.

The apostles were given the greatest, biggest commission:

To preach to all nations. And Jesus recommended their first

move: To remain exactly where they were until they were “clothed

with power from on high.” So perhaps we, under Jesus’s easy yoke,

should also remain where we are, not taking on any new great things

for ourselves, for God, or for the world, until we have been clothed

with the Spirit’s power which makes difficult things easy and light.

As we quieten down and progressively pray to be filled with God’s Spirit,

and God answers our prayers as He promised, our personality changes.

We become ever gentler. May it be so. Come, Holy Spirit. Amen.

7 things I learned from Simon Vibert’s “Stress: The Path to Peace”

By Anita Mathias

Available on Amazon.com

Available on Amazon.co.uk

Living with high levels of stress can be physically and emotionally dangerous, so much so that stress tests like those by psychiatrists Holmes and Rahe can predict the likelihood of serious illness or an accident in the coming year based an individual’s level of current stress.

1 In his book with Philip Yancey, “Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants,” Dr. Paul Brand describes his work with leprosy patients. The disease attacked their nerves. Unable to feel pain, they cut or burned their feet and hands. The ability to feel pain is a safeguard.

Stress, emotional discomfort, is a similar red light and danger signal— a warning sign that our bodies’ needs must be attended to, a warning to slow down and recalibrate our life, our thinking, and emotions. When heeded, symptoms of stress function as a safeguard.

2 Whereas urbanization, instant communication, and noise pollution are major sources of stress, the best stress-busters, according to a Hoegaarden Beers survey, are contact with nature, the sight of the sea, a walk in the park, hearing birds singing, or smelling freshly cut grass.

Ironically, a balanced life with exercise, rest, relaxation, and time with family and friends makes us more productive.

3 “Planning and making lists removes stress. Noting down everything that needs doing brings huge relief.”

(Both Roy and I have always kept mental lists in our heads—of engagements, parties, things to do…and things do get forgotten–particularly from the To Do list). Whenever I note things down however, I do find a sense of relief. I realize that I have a lot less to do than I thought, and it also motivates me to zip through the list.)

4 Anger increases stress by pumping adrenaline and cortisol around our body, robbing us of tranquillity and sleep.

High-adrenaline physical activity helps to bring our anger under control. As does enough sleep, and trying to see it from the other person’s perspective.

The best way to master anger, however, involves mastering the reflex of dealing with our anger vertically, with God. Telling God about it, and seeking his perspective. Learning to forgive.

5 “The God-given rhythm of rest, time away from our work, is necessary for greater productivity.”

James Crichton-Browne, “We doctors, in the treatment of nervous diseases, are now constantly compelled to prescribe periods of rest. Some periods are only Sundays in arrears.”

A “Sabbath” is good for all human beings. French and Soviet attempts to increase the work-week backfired. Accidents increase and productivity diminishes after about eight hours of work a day, or forty hours a week.

Physician Verna Wright writes, “Just as the body requires its 24 hour cycle, so the one in seven rest day fits perfectly the needs of the body and mind, physically, mentally and spiritually.”

The Sabbath was indeed to be a celebration of freedom from slavery, a gift—a time when humans enjoy the fruit of their labour.

Tim Keller, “God ties the Sabbath to freedom from slavery. Anyone who overworks is a slave. Anyone who cannot rest from work is a slave—to a need for success, to a materialistic culture, to exploitative employers. These slave masters will abuse you if you are not disciplined in the practice of Sabbath rest. Sabbath is a declaration of freedom.”

6 Worry increases stress. Jesus quite clearly tells his disciples not to worry about anything. Again, we can train ourselves to refocus our worry into surrender and trust.

And since, apparently, we control only 8% of the things we worry about, it makes good sense to surrender the outcome of things to God, and to trust his goodness, and his creative ability to work all things out for good.

7 Stress is caused as much by one’s attitude and outlook on life as by external pressures and circumstances.

Once we recalibrate our heart in surrender, and remind ourselves of God’s love for us, and power over our circumstances, and ability to work everything together for good, our stress looks after itself.

By letting God be King, and believing in his power to help us and work together the twists and turns of our lives for good, we begin to learn the secret of being content whatever the circumstances.

I found the earlier, practical chapters more helpful than the later theological ones, though, as Simon points out, while practical lifestyle adjustments certainly reduce stress, facing one’s difficulties as a believer, believing in God’s power to help us, and to work all our difficulties together for good is ultimately the best solution to the problem of stress.

I received Simon Vibert’s Stress: The Path to Peace from Intervarsity Press to review. Available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

In which Rest is an Essential Part of the Creative Process

By Anita Mathias

The first chapter of Genesis explodes with creativity!

God creates sun, moon and stars; banyans, baobabs and butterflies; macaws, mice and mastodons from a smile in his brain.

He creates the world in exuberance because that is his nature. He is a Maker, a creator.

And all of us are inherently creative, because we all have shades of the Maker in us. Our houses, gardens, outfits, meals, work, and budgets, all betray hints of the original artist’s creativity.

* * *

Any creative person’s work will be enhanced if they align themselves with the master artist.

Not all of us will be Michelangelo or Fra Angelico, Milton or Hopkins, Handel or Bach (who were all Christians incidentally). However, spending time in the presence of the original creator, divinely enhances and super-charges us.

We become thoroughly ourselves, yet our work will shimmer with the presence of the Master. Which creative has not had the experience of the blog or the story basically writing themselves, of an electricity beyond ourselves racing through our fingers?

I used to think of writing as an art and a craft, a matter of reading, study, and conscious and subliminal absorption. And, of course, it is all that.

But what I rely on most now is alignment with the Master Artist. Before I write, I try to align myself with God, and get in touch with him, ask for his streams of living water to flow through me. I write best and fastest then, with surety, without excessive self-criticism.

* * *

God’s account of creation ends with a vital and overlooked part of the creative process.

Rest.

Isn’t that lovely? Though God was effortlessly creative, his creativity flowing from thought to word to product, yet, on one day out of seven, he came to a complete halt, the inspired author of Genesis tells us. He rested from “all the work of creating” (Gen. 2:3).

God made things to last. Though dodos, passenger pigeons, woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers have gone extinct, creation “in all its vast array” still glows. It’s a still a wild, wonderful world.

And God is still creating through us. Down the waterfall of the mind of God tumbles nascent ideas for Macbooks and iPhones with access to all the knowledge of the world in our pockets; blogs and stories, symphonies and comedies.

And if we like God want to produce fruit that will last as Jesus commanded us to, if we want to continue creating all our lives, then we too need to pace ourselves, to come to a complete halt, once a week, and rest from all creating. We need to let the Spirit reset us.

* * *

How? Since God did not spell out how to keep the Sabbath holy, we can interpret it personally and honestly. I like to worship in community, but when I am exhausted, physically or emotionally, I send my children (since I consider that my Christian duty) and I spend that time praying alone. Reading my Bible. Or in lectio divina.

On Sunday, I do not create. I sleep in. I garden. Or walk. Or nap. A lot of napping. If ideas come, I jot them down, but do not refine them. I resist any work that will make me better-off, or better-known, or more successful. Or thinner! I just rest.

Sunday is a day God blessed, we are told in Genesis. A day to step into another economy in which resting is an activity, not a cessation from activity. In which magically a day in which one does nothing but rest is holy.

* * *

Ah, Sunday. One day in seven in the divine economy. One day to acknowledge that we do not ultimately own our lives or our careers. We can not control them, not really. We cannot make ourselves rich or successful or famous or beautiful, or else the world would be full of super-rich, super-famous, beautiful people. Why even true art is beyond our control, or the world would be awash in it. And in this world of polluted food supplies, even our health is partially out of our control. Cancer strikes gourmets and gluttons; foodies and fast-foodies; billionaires and bankrupts. It’s as impartial as death!

In a world in which we control so little—not the date of our death, not the cells in our bodies, not the outcome of words, our stocks, or the fruit of our womb, what a sublime idea to take a day a week to rest, to let go of interminable striving, and enter another economy. On the day of rest, we enter the economy of the powerless who seek power from God, the economy of the tired who seek strength as they wait upon the Lord; the economy of the unconnected who seek God to connect them; the economy of the creatives who one day a week silence their words to make room for The Word.

And perhaps on that blessed, holy day, the spirit of God shall hover over the still waters of the quieted mind, shall wake in them words and visions which shall last.

* * *

Ah, we lose our way; we become functional atheists in Parker Palmer’s phrase, when we believe that nothing will happen unless we make it happen.

But there is another way consistently recommended in Scripture, the way not of might, nor of power, but of God’s spirit.

What might that look like for me? It would mean that if I want to get a book commercially published, I must seek the Spirit about how to do this. Perhaps he will connect me to the right literary agent and publisher without my doing anything about it. May it be so!! Perhaps he will clarify whom I am to contact. It may well be a process as streamlined and efficient as the process of creation, (unless for my character as for Joseph’s and Job’s, he chooses to prolong a sojourn in the desert).

For my blog, the way of might and power is no longer sustainable. I am too weary for it. I must now do it by the way of the Spirit. Seek the Spirit for what to write. Seek the Spirit for how much to write (currently 5 posts a month, so I have time to work on a book). Seek the Spirit for how to share what I write.

He is The Spirit. He is not human. His ways, his strategies will be greater, more surprising, more out of the box than anything I could think of. And because he loves me, his strategies will be practical, sustainable, and not exhausting.

Roy and I need to seek the Spirit in our family business, for cleverness, for strategy, for thinking out of the box, because, again, time and energy are in short supply. We need his ideas, not our own.

I need to seek the Spirit for how to shed the extra weight that puts me at risk for colon cancer. Cancer seemed a far away thing that happens to other people. However, I now await the results of a biopsy. Being overweight increases the risk of colon cancer, as does being sedentary, or eating red meat, or too much fat. Yes, yes: Guilty as charged. Losing weight has never been easy, or else I would have done so. I have lost 21 pounds over the last 2 years, but my weight loss stopped around Easter. So how do I lose this pesky weight? I must seek the ways of the Spirit.

There are gurus who will tell you all this—how to grow your blog, publish your book well, grow your online business, and lose weight. It makes sense to skim their books; I mean why waste time reinventing the wheel?

But Michael Hyatt writes on Platform, but I daresay none of his readers have a platform like his. Jeff tells us how to get 10,000 subscribers; do any of his readers have that many? Dr. Fuhrman has a brilliant, but unsustainable way of weight loss.

These things worked for them. Each of us must seek the Spirit who loves us for what will work for us. My daughters love giving me advice, and I sing out in reply, “But I am not you. I am me.” So it is with other people’s strategies; they may not work for me for I am not them. I am me.

I must seek the streamlined way of the spirit, the way of minimal wasted effort. I think again of the intricate interlocked efficient universe in which nothing is wasted, created in the mind of God, spoken forth into existence over six… aeons.

I hear the voice of the Spirit when I am still and listen for it. I hear it when I wait and just hang out with him. I hear it in rest.

And on the Sabbath, the day I set apart for haunting his paths, I greatly increase my chances of hearing the wise, astonishing, loving voice of the Spirit.

* * *

Tweetables

Rest is an intrinsic part of the creative process NEW POST from @anitamathias1

On seeking the way not of might or power, but of the Spirit. NEW POST from @anitamathias1

Alignment with the master artist supercharges our creativity NEW POST from @anitamathias1

Over to you

Have you experienced walking in the ways not of might, nor of power but of the Spirit?

How do you experience Sabbath Rest?

In which Jesus Promises Rest to the Meek

By Anita Mathias

I like Jesus’ great invitation at the end of Matthew 11:“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I like that fact that Jesus suggests we learn meekness by observing and studying him. So, obviously, meekness is not a natural character trait like being sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic or choleric, but a learned behaviour.

I have various mantras, what Gretchen Rubin calls “splendid truths.” (One of these, adopted from her, calms me down: “There is only love.”) I need to add one more: “I will learn how to be meek and humble of heart from Jesus.” Since, obviously, it does not come naturally!!

* * *

Why would one want to be humble of heart? Because pride is silly, narrow and self-centred. We are not focused on anything important, anything worth having, but merely on self, on how others perceive us, and treat us.

Why would one want to be meek? Because being gentle is the best way to be, rather than being proud and aggressive.

And besides, the meek inherit the earth: The value of meekness, even in regard to worldly property and success in life, is often exhibited in the Scriptures. It is also seen in common life that a meek, patient, mild man is the most prospered. An impatient and quarrelsome man raises up enemies; often loses property in lawsuits; spends his time in disputes and broils rather than in sober, honest industry; and is harassed, vexed, and unsuccessful in all that he does. (Barnes Notes on the Bible.)

* * *

So how does one learn to be meek? Practice. Practice meek practices.

So that is what I am training myself to do.

Let others have the last word. If someone puts you down, let them.

Overlook lots of things. Blow things away with the breath of kindness. When spoken to harshly, you don’t need to retort in kind. Return a gentle answer or none at all when someone gets irrational through tiredness. This is particularly useful in family life: the blind eye and the deaf ear so that one can get on with one’s work.

Ignore negativity directed at you on social media as much as possible. Block repeat offenders.

Practice, practice, practice, one step after another, until all this becomes second nature!

* * *

Learn from Jesus how to be gentle and humble, and the prize is the rest we seek, as we work–as we sleep–as we relax–as we live.

Our souls are as rested when we work, or hang out at home, as they are after a week of beach and mountain walks, because we are choosing meekness which obviates conflict, and we are choosing humility, daily defining all our grand ambitions, and then placing them in his hands to grant–or not.

In which Driveness & Scarcity Thinking is the Voice of the Oppressor, & the Enemy of the People

By Anita Mathias

Christ The Good Shepherd

I am reading Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly. She quotes Global activist Lynne Twist who, in her book The Soul of Money, refers to scarcity as “the great lie”.

Twist writes, “For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is, “I didn’t get enough sleep.” The next one is “I don’t have enough time.” Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining or worrying about what we don’t have enough of.

Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we’re already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds are racing with a litany of what we didn’t get, or didn’t get done, that day. We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to that reverie of lack.

This internal condition of scarcity, this mind-set of scarcity, lives at the very heart of our jealousies, our greed, our prejudice, and our arguments with life.”

* * *

And so we go through life, driven, driven, driven. Rushing like the Gadarene swine, driven by demons they could not see over a cliff to their destruction.

Driven by ambition to the detriment of our health, mental health, emotional health, relationships.

Driven for validation. To prove our intelligence, spirituality, talent, worth…

Forgetting that all drivenness comes from Satan, never from God.

Driveneness comes from the Accuser and Oppressor of the Brethren, never from the Good Shepherd who gently leads us.

We are driven by Satan, but Christ, he leads us on minute by minute, through his gentle Spirit. We have but to follow.

* * *

And in our drivenness to grab the life we dream of through our own hard work, we forget that there is a far better way, without bleeding fingertips and hearts and lives.

The way of prayer, and trust, and leaving room for God to work his miracles.

We forget The One who Makes Dreams Come True, the weaver, who can weave a technicolour dreamcoat from scraps of discarded wool

The one who can give us our wild dreams, and add no sorrow to them.

The one who says, “Come ye apart from them and be separate.”

The one who says, “Honey Child, you are enough.

I like you just as you are.

Brilliant success won’t make me like you more.

Failure will only make me envelop you more.

In me, you are loved, complete.

In me, child, you are enough!

Turn your gaze to me, and let me fill up the hungry holes in your heart.

Eat me, drink me.

Turn to me when you sense Satan driving,

When you are tempted by striving,

And I will give you rest.”

Off to “His Place,” a Christian Retreat Centre in Saarland, Germany. “He Restores my Soul”

By Anita Mathias

We are on our way to Germany to stay at His Place, a guesthouse, owned by a Christian community, Community Without Walls, where Rolland Baker was healed from dementia, and Carol Arnott was healed and taught the ten minute worship revolution which has helped me a lot on the days I remember to use it.

We are hoping to explore a bit of Germany, and Luxembourg and France, for Saarland is nestled between them, but also rest, and pray and walk.

I have had an amazing half-term. (For non-Brits, English schools have three 12 week terms, with a precious half-term week off between each 6 week half term, and 3 weeks off for Christmas and Easter, and 7 weeks in the summer. It’s a less gruelling model than the American system).

The British school system suits my own rhythms. I like to read and write for six weeks with increasing focus and intensity, and then have a week of mainly travel and exploration, or pure rest at a retreat centre, and catching up on sleep. And then return, as good as new.

After a wonderful talk on writing, and prayer for the anointing of writing by Mark Stibbe, I wrote at full heat for several weeks. I am now tired. I guess in any spirit-empowered thing one needs to keep one’s eyes on Jesus, or you can sink like Peter, once you stop relying on God’s power, and instead start doing things on auto-pilot.

I am often astonished by the extent I run on adrenalin—you know, got-to-write, got-to-blog, got-to-run, got-to-pray. As we leave on holiday, in our motorhome, I lie down on a bed, and am fast asleep until we reach Dover. Wow, had I really been that tired, just running on green tea, excitement and enthusiasm? As it drains out, I realize how tired I actually was.

I’ve read that when one goes to an unscheduled retreat, the first thing one wants to do is to sleep for long hours. We work—or play!!—for unnatural hours, long into darkness; we wake with an alarm, before we have slept out all our sleep. We live with a constant sleep lag, mild sleep deprivation in some cases. Oooh, why do we do this to ourselves?

According to His Place’s literature Natural silence, majestic views, natural forest gardens and fields, valleys and canyons, rocks and rippling steams can all be found here. Hiking is always fun – at least in Saarland! Germany’s best hiking trails can be found here. Saarland, nestled in between France and Luxembourg, was tailor-made for hikers. It offers both excellent cuisine and a diverse landscape.

The premium hiking trails are circular routes that have been carefully chosen to include the most beautiful landscapes in Saarland.

And yeah, I am looking forward to exploring them!

Here is the link to His Place–http://www.hisplace.eu/hisplace_en.html

In Praise of Sundays

By Anita Mathias

Having a Sunday of deep rest, with everyone peacefully doing their own things.

Having a Sunday which is completely restful, does sharpen one’s appetite for the work week, just as returns from travel makes one’s home and home-life so much sweeter!