The Hard Work of Rest and Restoration

Published by christi on July 25, 2024July 25, 2024

Wow. It’s been a minute!

Since my last post I have directed a five-day vacation Bible school drama with a teen cast, thrown a cast party, traveled 3600 miles in a pickup truck (a fancy new hybrid one), sewn a bridal veil, danced at a wedding in a vintage Art Deco theater, reconnected with some cousins, visited two grown children and their families and two brothers-in-law with theirs, got robbed in the night, and stayed in (apparently) the only hotel in the Las Vegas area that doesn’t have gambling machines in it!

Not exactly what I thought a sabbatical might look like!

I am still doing physical therapy twice a week. I’ve managed to work my way up to three-pound weights in some exercises! What I am finding out is that it takes a long time to rebuild after a relatively short time of doing nothing!

I see this principle everywhere in my life right now. Human relationships, vegetable gardens, fruit trees, rose bushes, walks with God…all these things take time to maintain, but more time to restore if neglected. Sometimes small wounds untended result in amputation. Other times the damage is so great that it can’t be repaired and the result is death.

The muscles in my upper arm and shoulder that were purposefully un-used are being strengthened again with careful, knowledgeable coaching. A two-hour surgery to replace a joint that just wasn’t working has put me on a four-month (so far) journey, but at least the road is toward recovery and restoration of capacity!

When God calls us to turn back to Him, sometimes it calls for fiery sacrifices at the beginning, but it’s the daily returns that rebuild the new man’s muscles. I have had to offer my previous schedule on the altar, my ability to accomplish things. He is rebuilding and restoring the things that He desires, while we (He and I) are still daily tearing down and burning the things that dilute or distract from devotion to Him, like pride in my ability to accomplish stuff, like reluctance to being uncomfortable, like chafing under the discipline of a schedule.

All this because I am…

Following Jesus every day in the everyday,

Christi

P.S. Is there something He wants you to put in the fire so He can build your new man up in His strength?