After doing almost nothing that could by any stretch of the imagination be called constructive this past week on vacation, Sandi and I went to a friends house where some men from the middle east were visiting.

It was a “restful” week and was more or less planned that way from the beginning. So it was almost an effort to get out of my easy chair and drive the 10 miles to my friends house.

We arrived a bit late and within a few minutes the men began to take turns telling us in their broken english what was happening spiritually in the places where they are living—we are talking in and around Serbia, Greece, Jordan, etc. It is always interesting to find out that no matter where you live, God is God and many of the same things happen in their lives from a Christian perspective as they do in ours far across the sea from where they reside.

After three of the men had shared briefly what was happening in their locales, the fourth man got up and had a few “prophetic” words for some of us attending, including me. I had brought along a computer and was intent on recording what they had to say but unfortunately something glitchy happened and I was not able to save the audio file completely without big gaps in the recording.

I can’t totally remember what he said to me but the gist of the word was that I liked doing my job, that God was going to reveal Himself to me in a new way and that I needed to “rest”. So I guess what I have been up to this past week is totally in line with God’s plan for my life—rest with a capital R.

It is at this point in our little discourse that I have to admit to you that I don’t really totally understand from a biblical perspective what resting is. The bible seems to imply that ceasing from your own works is resting. Confused as usual, I called my buddy Alan and asked him if he thought that resting meant doing nothing and being quiet—in other words letting God do everythng.

I was surprised by his answer.

He told me that resting is sometimes waiting on God but that if we believe that we hear God and that the truth is in us, there are definately times to share this truth with others. Sharing this truth, which can be directional or correctional in nature, is not not resting in God. Just being quiet—for fear of interupting God’s plan—and not sharing what we believe that we have is not resting in God.

I am still not sure I understand what resting is but I am on my way to the next mile marker on the road that we are all traveling on.

So yesterday, while everyone was away, I took a long walk and during that time asked God to teach me about rest. I also admited, rather belatedly, that I may have a warped persepctive on who Jesus is and that I needed some fresh revelation in my life, not new revelation. I am a firm believer that we have lots of stuff inside of us that just needs to be refreshed or re-newed every once and a while in order that we can proceed down the road we are traveling on.

I will be the first to admit that I have believed some rather bizarre stuff over the years and that I have been hurt by the very church that was supposed to show me a picture of what Jesus looks like over the years. But I do believe in a new and exciting way, that the road we are currently on is one where we will begin to see all the things that have been distorted or hidden from us in the past.

And as I have said before—that’s a ride worth taking any day. Enjoy yours.