Busyness looks different to everyone. I’ve learned this recently while working on my doctorate and taking on a leadership role in my organization. My brain is constantly going. I took a lunch break one time to play in the yard, and my neighbor got mad at me, because he thought I was sloughing off, the unemployed guy with time to frolic in the sun, while he worked his butt off 11 hours that day building a house. I wasn’t being lazy. I was taking time to rest, and that’s exactly what this book is about.

“Ruth Bergen is a minister’s wife who lives in Scotland,” so says the book’s back cover. “She invites you to go on a journey from stress to God’s rest.” Organized loosely into chapters that cover the concepts of rest in Scripture, her own story, and some ways to pursue rest, this book is a pleasant read with many nuggets of wisdom strewn throughout from Bergen’s own lengthy study on the topic and recognition that she herself needed to slow down.

I enjoyed from this book an obvious love for learning that Bergen has, the many poignant quotations and proverbs and pithy truths that help bolster her points. Pertinent here is a quote she drew from my own personal favorite, Jack London: “Keep a notebook, travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Paper is less perishable than grey matter, and lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.” (69)

While it seems this book might be the product of a ladies Bible study, it doesn’t come across as such, but is something that anyone can read, alone or in a group. In fact, it’s a book one might want to devour during a week-long vacation or take a chapter at a time during lunch breaks at work. Many of the ideas I found here were good reminders that my busyness should never exhaust me, and that prioritization of responsibilities (including rest) is a daily need.

Here are just a few of the many quotes I highlighted:

“Exhaustion comes when we take on responsibilities God never intended us to have. The twin of exhaustion is emptiness that comes when we fail to take on a responsibility God does intend for us to assume.” (Mary Southerland in Discovering God’s Rest by Ruth Bergen, 27)

“Write your goals down. If you don’t write them down, they’re just dreams.” (78)

“I have yet to hear a child say that their parent spent too much time with them playing games and working with them, teaching them.” (59)

“I will tell you to apply [to your devotions] what a fitness instructor told me about exercise: ‘Ruth, it really doesn’t matter what you do, but do something, and do it every day.’ Make it an intentional priority, or it will never happen.” (68)

This book was a blessing to read and a good reminder that, even though my busyness might not look the same as the contractor beside me, my need for rest is the same. Jesus calls me to it (“Come unto me”) just as He called his disciples (“Come apart and rest a while”) and just as He Himself exemplified with his going up into the mountains alone to pray. It’s not a matter of finding time to rest but making time for it. Something for sure to put on my To-do List.

©2023 E.T.