i'm mckenna best and i need to rest

I'm McKenna Best and I need to rest. 

And nope, this is not an ad for a mattress company. Although with a slogan like that, I’m wondering why Serta hasn’t sponsored me yet.

I don’t need better sleep. Between my lavender pillow spray, melatonin, and Ralph Lauren cooling pillows, I sleep like a baby every night. So when I talk about rest in this blog post, I don’t mean I need more sleep, relaxing or slowing down. I know some people struggle to pause, be still and allow themselves to be unproductive, but let me just tell you I do not have that struggle. I’m pretty sure I came out the womb relaxing. But I do need to rest. Now, I know that sounds like a contradiction but bear with me.

When it comes to physical rest, I pass with flying colors. But spiritual rest? Well, that’s a whole ‘nother story.

Over the past few months, I found myself avoiding quiet time with the Lord, zoning out during sermons, and just singing another song in worship. I couldn’t figure out why I felt so disconnected. I noticed when stress and anxiety began to creep in, I didn’t even have the energy to go to the Lord about it. So I did what I do best and shoved it down, hoping I could just go about my life and not have to deal with it.

Well, update: that doesn't work. The things you bottle up eventually come bursting out like a shaken up bottle of Mountain Dew. And it’s messy. In retrospect, I can see that I wasn’t resting in the Lord. I tried suppressing my fears and anxiety rather than immediately giving it to Him and dwelling on His truth.  But it took something like that to make me realize that I was trusting God half-heartedly and I wasn’t meditating on His goodness. I simply was running from rest.

But to think that the creator of the universe wants to carry our heaviest burdens for us is an incredibly liberating thought. He doesn’t command us to “figure it out” or “deal with it yourself,” but he invites us to simply rest in who He is. We don’t have to try and run this race with the weight of worry and anxiety on our back. We can give it to Him and experience freedom. We can surrender it and find peace. We can choose to breathe in the truth of scripture and find comfort in the words of Jesus. We can rest knowing that He is the provider and source of real love on this earth. And He’s inviting us to simply cling to that.

We’re all choosing to rest in something. Maybe it’s in our own abilities. Maybe it’s in the approval of others. Maybe it’s a job or a relationship. But the only place that will actually give our souls rest is in the presence of the Lord. Where is your mind dwelling? In whom or what are you finding comfort in today?