“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” –– Matthew 11:28

Everyone can think of a time in their lives that has been stressful, tiring, and just plain hard. We all hit that point where we wonder whether we really can keep going. I got to that place more times than I can count this last year. There comes a point though, when we do have to take a break for risk of “overheating,” over-stressing, and over-extending ourselves.

My biggest break recently has been Christmas, when I had three weeks to forget school. Many of my friends headed interior to their village homes to spend the break with friends and family there. I watched my dad taking off to fly them to remote villages, all the way up to the day MAF stopped flying for Christmas . . . and then, even the planes rested.

I knew “rest” for some of my friends involved crazy hiking trips and swimming in fast flowing rivers, or simply spending quality time with family they hadn’t seen for months. For me, rest meant getting up when I wanted to, reading good books and playing fun games. It meant hanging out with my friends who hadn’t gone somewhere else and playing basketball. Most of all it meant spending time with God.

Spending time with God means reading the Bible and finding new things to delight in. It means hiking to the waterfall or watching the sunset and basking in the beauty of God’s creation. It means praying with thanksgiving and joy and not asking for anything in return because I’ve already received the best gift of all: Jesus. This is how I learn to rest in God, and I want to learn to do this all the time!

Resting in God helps us recharge and ready ourselves for the next thing to come our way, because hard times won’t stop. But we can know that God will give us what we need to handle those times . . . if we’ll just rest in Him.