Discerning Your Spiritual Calling: The Importance of Rest & Restoration
In our fast-paced society terms like, side hustle, fast-paced work environment, and maximizing motivation have become synonymous with success and prosperity. Yet, within this frenzy, society is reporting higher rates of depression and anxiety, less job satisfaction, and increased stress in work and family life. Our modern culture idealizes the 24-hour workday, sacrificing your personal health for your job, and the alienation of family and friends because of a busy schedule.
This fast-paced way of life is not what God intended. There are signs that rest and restoration are important. In the day's cycle, there is daylight to work and the evening darkness to rest. The four seasons reflect sequences of new growth in spring, sustained growth in summer, harvest in fall, and deep rest in the winter. As we look at the animals, they move through periods of activity and rest. Despite society’s emphasis on insane levels of hyper-productivity and overstimulation; rest is important to your life and even more important for your spiritual calling.
The Importance of Rest in Your Spiritual Calling:
The creation story repeats twice in chapters one and two of the Bible. At first these two chapters seem a misplaced menagerie of creative events, stated twice for no apparent reason. Yet, when you metaphysically interpret these two chapters, you realize that the creation story repeats for a reason. The first chapter discusses creation occurring in the mind of God. The second chapter is the actual act of creation (Butterworth, 2003). These are two distinct events: creation occurring in mind, known as involution, and creation occurring in action, known as evolution. The inward process of involution will always come before the active phase of evolution (Filmore, 2014)
Title: Ufton Fields June 201407, Author: Andy Sim, Source: Flickr is license by CC BY-SA 2.0
Your spiritual calling proceeds through the processes of involution to evolution. The process of involution includes the stages of Enlightenment, Expansion, Visualization, Inner Guidance, Plans & Processes, and Dominion. These stages are the founding seed and purpose of the spiritual call. First, the seed of your calling plants in your heart and mind. Then the seed actively manifest into a strong and magnificent tree during the evolutionary process of your call. As you wake up to your spiritual calling in the process of involution, you understand your purpose (Filmore, 2014). Yet it is in the process of evolution where you take part in practical everyday activities to accomplish your calling and purpose.
Often missed in the creation story is God rested between Genesis 1 (Involution) and Genesis 2 (Evolution). A deity resting between major phases of creation should get your attention, as an infinite spiritual being requires no rest. There is a pause, a period of respite, between the involution of thought and the evolution of action.
Modern, western culture views rest and restoration as weak, lazy, and wasteful. Yet, God notes that rest is a normal rhythm on the path of your spiritual calling. The processes of involution and evolution in your spiritual calling are life-giving, but require high amounts of emotional, physical, and spiritual energy. God’s introduction of the concept of rest in your process of your spiritual calling is an important pinnacle within the creative process. It is an opportunity for you to return to your center and revive yourself in your relationship with God.
The process of creation and manifestation of your spiritual calling is overwhelming, anxiety provoking, and physically exhausting. Without rest, you will lose focus on the reason and purpose that your spiritual calling occurred in the first place (Butterworth, 2003).
In rest, you can become still and centered in your relationship with God. When you center in God, you will return to the natural flow and rhythm of the work associated with your calling without the frenzy and hurry that leads to burnout. Rest is a return to your personal sanctuary where you first discovered your spiritual calling. It is an opportunity to check with yourself and determine if your living in the flow of life, love, and work that impassioned your spirit when you first received your calling (Butterworth, 2003). Rest restores your creative connection to the infinite God.
Establishing a Reason for Rest in Your Spiritual Calling:
The word sabbath or “period of restoration” has taken on a negative connotation because of the puritanical roots of most Christian denominations (Butterworth, 2003). The ideal of sabbath in western culture is the busy frenzy of going to church. This is not to disparage church services, which have their place in creating community and encouraging our union with God. Instead, this is understanding rest as God meant it in the biblical narrative of Genesis, a process of restoration and preparation for the next steps of your spiritual calling.
The purpose of the sabbath is to allow the thoughts and strategies that emerged during the involution process to settle; resolutely anchoring in your soul and mind. Many people’s favorite time in a yoga practice is the pose of Savasana. Savasana, or corpse pose, occurs at the end of a challenging yoga session often filled with active and strenuous poses (Le Page, 2005). Yoga practitioners lay on their back with their arms and legs spread comfortably outward. In this pose, the individual senses their body coming into stillness as their muscles relax. The practitioner connects to their breath. In stillness, there is a natural joining to the interconnectedness of all creation. This connection in stillness opens the individual to increased compassion, love, and mindfulness.
Despite society’s emphasis on insane levels of hyper-productivity and overstimulation; rest is important to your life and even more important for your spiritual calling.
The purpose of the sabbath rest in your spiritual calling is not church attendance, but like the pose of Savasana, the sabbath anchors your soul and mind in God. It restores your awareness of the interconnectedness between yourself, God, and humankind. Rest anchors you in divine love and compassion for others. This renewed love restores the passion of your spiritual call, empowering you to move into the next steps of active service to others.
Rest and restoration are not a once-a-week chapel service. Rest is the innate experience that occurs every day of your life. For some, it will occur in the quiet, mindfulness of morning meditation. For others, it will be a 10-minute break in your day where you focus on a devotional or inspirational reading. It may also be a simple hike in nature contemplating the existence of a higher power. Your sabbatical defines a practice that brings rest and renewal while preparing you to re-enter the world to complete your spiritual call. It is a time set aside to establish your awareness of your relationship to God and the impact of that relationship on how you live, love, and act (Butterworth, 2003).
Developing Rest in the Rhythms of your Spiritual Calling:
Within the rhythms of nature, there are a constant work and rest cycle. Yet, the idea of balancing work and rest is alien to our modern world. The sabbath will restore you and prepare you for what will happen next in your spiritual call. Jesus reminds us, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily 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 in your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30; WEB, 2022).
Rest or sabbatical is a daily, weekly, and monthly practice that restores and prepares. Review your week and life in order to determine where the rest needs to occur. Are there periods of the day that you feel more frenzied, stressed, or overworked? What are the most tiring events of the week? Do you have a day in your week where your sole focus is connecting to God for resting in Divine Presence?
Rest is a return to your personal sanctuary where you first discovered your spiritual calling.
As you notice periods of stress and anxiety; these may be opportune times to introduce the spiritual practice of sabbath. It doesn’t matter what the activities of your rest are. What is most important is your rest centers you in God, the purpose of your spiritual calling, and the next steps and actions of your call.
The next steps in integrating a sabbath rest is to identify the activities that bring you closer to God and help you feel restored. What small daily practices do you need to implement? What weekly practices will restore you? It may also be important to establish periodic “personal” spiritual retreats to restore your connection to God and renew spiritually.
Conclusion:
Rest is an important part of your spiritual calling. In our modern world that over-values productivity and hustle; we often forget that God ordained rest in the process of your spiritual call. The Spirit recognizes your propensity to overwork and establishes the sabbath of rest not for God, but for you.
What your sabbath rest looks like is not important. What is important is attenuating to the spiritual practice of rest. The sabbath rest is a practice that is implemented not when attending church; but on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis in response to the natural rhythms of work. The practice of sabbath is more important than the form of sabbath.
Establish the patterns and practice of sabbath rest in your daily life. The Spirit never intended your spiritual calling to be a burden or drudgery; but God restores your passion and vision for your spiritual calling in rest.
By: Heath B. Walters, Ph.D.
Copyright © February 6th, 2023, Heath B. Walters DBA Spiritual Life Resources, All Rights Reserved
Reference
Butterworth, E. (2003). The Creative Life: 7 Keys to Your Inner Genius. Tarcher-Perigee.
Filmore, C. (2014). The Revealing Word: A Dictionary of Metaphysical Terms. Martino Fine Books, Reprint of 1959 Edition. ISBN-13: 978-1614276548.
Le Page, J., & Le Page, L. (2005). Integrative Yoga Therapy: Yoga Toolbox for Teachers and Students (2ndEdition). Integrative Yoga Therapy ISBN 0-9744303-3-1.
World English Bible (2022). WEB Online.