Beautiful and warm have been the norm this summer. I can hear the birds singing outside my office window.  A family of squirrels is chattering to one another in the branches of the trees.  The breeze rustles the leaves.  It’s all so peaceful, relaxing.  Well, now it is.  My day didn’t start out that way.

Sleep doesn’t come easily to me.  I average about 5 hours a night.  Some nights I get 6, other nights only 3 or 4.  Last night was one of my 3-hour-nights.  I woke up tired and cranky. I had to drag myself out of bed, force myself to the kitchen, and wrestle with my tongue to keep from telling my jovial-morning-person husband to please stop talking until I’d had time to wake up.  (He wakes up bright and cheery, usually at some ungodly early hour, ready to take on the day.  I wake up, usually around 9 AM, and can’t even see straight, let alone talk, until I’ve had a cup of coffee.)  Once the coffee was brewing, the wonderful smell cheered me enough to carry on an almost-friendly conversation until he’d left for work.

A good work-out, coffee, breakfast, Bible and prayer time – I was ready to face the day – or so I thought.  Have you noticed that when you’re exhausted, nothing goes right?  If it was liquid, I spilled it.  Solid – I dropped it (on my toes!). I splashed boiling water in my hand when I was making lunch (no permanent damage, just an annoyance).  The breeze blew some of the clothes off the clothesline.  It was mishap after another.

The straw was when my printer decided to hide somewhere in cyberspace.  I had planned for today to be a work day.  I made little progress.  Every time I tried to print something, I received an error message, telling me that the printer was no longer on the network.  After restarting the computer, the printer, and the Wi-Fi several times, troubleshooting, and almost sledgehammering the thing, I gave up.

“That’s it!  I’m done!”

I stormed out to the kitchen, yanked open the front door and ranted my way out onto the front porch.  The neighbors must have thought I’d lost my mind.

“God, I’m so tired,” I said, looking up into the porch rafters.  “I have an article to write and flyers to print.  I wanted to add to my manuscript.  I just want to get something done today.  What is wrong with me?”

“You’re tired.  You’re doing too much on too little sleep.  Relax,” the still small voice spoke to my heart.

“But…”

“No ‘buts.’  Just relax for a time.”

I sighed, went back into the house, and brewed a cup of coffee.  Coffee would help.  I sipped the hot liquid, sighed another sigh, and started toward my office.  The sounds of the birds and the chattering of the squirrels wafting through the window led me outside. “Just a few minutes,” I thought.

What a beautiful day it turned out to be.  My backyard was alive with butterflies fluttering around the lilies in my butterfly garden.  A Blue jay splashed in the birdbath. Honeybees buzzed from blossom to blossom in my flower gardens.  Birdsong, rustling leaves, the laughter of my neighbor’s grandson – it was just what I needed.  I settled into a chair in my pergola and just breathed.

“Rest. Relax.  The work will be there later.  Just take a break,” the still small voice said.

That time, I listened.  What a difference it made.  By the time I’d finished my coffee and made my way across the yard and into the house, I was relaxed, peaceful.

“Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”  So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.” Mark 6:31-32.

Jesus and His disciples spent hours ministering to the multitudes.  The sick were healed, the hungry were fed, the hopeless were given hope.  “Come with me and get some rest.” Jesus knew the importance of taking some time to refresh and rest.  He knew that without that quiet time, He and His disciples would burn out.

The same is true for us.  We get so busy that we forget to rest.  And if you don’t sleep, like I often don’t sleep, those quiet moments of just breathing and relaxing are especially important.

Take some time for yourself.  Don’t let the “stuff” become so pressing that you don’t refresh and recharge.  Even a few moments of quiet can make a big difference.  We all need time to rest.