Rest, Replenish, Refocus.

I had planned earlier this week to write about something else, but the church service Katie and I attended yesterday morning really hit home. The pastor addressed a popular topic - stress - and how to deal with it. Although I've heard many messages on worry and giving our troubles to the Lord, this one was one of the most practical and applicable messages I've heard in a while.

Confession, I can be the epitome of stress. My spring semester of senior year, one which most seniors are carefree and don't seem to have a worry in the world, was a roller coaster. One minute everything would be fine and dandy, and the next I would be discouraged and stressed over my job search - something I had started August 1st my senior year. Fall and winter came and went, and still...no job. Although that's the standard case in media careers as a college almost-graduate, not knowing where I would end up was something that I did not want to experience my last few months at school.

Throughout all of that, however, God did have a plan. Looking back at all the time I put into stressing about perfecting each and every email, cover letter or writing sample submission makes me think "why?" God had a plan for me the whole time - and that plan was sending me eight hours away from home with my best friend.

God calls us to be free from the stress that so many of us experience on a daily basis. Yesterday, these two verses almost screamed at me from my Bible:


Hebrews 4:9-11

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest.

Proverbs 21:5 

Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you further behind.


The Hebrews verse, is another the pastor focused on. Sundays are meant for us to rest - resting our bodies and replenishing us so that we can be productive for the rest of the week. Sundays, for me, sometimes are spent rushing around, whether that's finishing my errands, meal planning, shopping or cleaning, when I need to rest both my body and my mind.

Especially now that my days are full of work, and less rest like they were in college, it can be easy to "hurry and scurry" and cross off everything on my to-do list. But careful planning, like it says in Proverbs, is how God wants us to live our lives. That, hits home.