Resting In the Lord

Yesterday, I slept from 5pm to 7am the next day. When I woke up, I was disoriented of the time. Was I that physically tired? I guess so, yesterday I was starting to feel my tonsils swell and I knew my body wasn't in top condition.

Rest. Our bodies need it, and so does our souls.

Psalm 62
¹ Truly my soul finds rest in God;
my salvation comes from him.
² Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

While we may use our bodies for active work, our minds for thinking and decision making, our souls we use to find meaning in what we do and in where we are. Without the strength of soul, our bodies and minds will not be motivated. Without our souls, we are mechanized humans, like robots going about our daily tasks for compliance. Our souls feed us our passion, and without the spirit being nourished or rested in the Lord we cannot be effective as a person.

“My soul is restless until it rests in Thee my God.” St. Augustine

Another view is about our souls being restless. Always in active search for true happiness. St. Augustine couldn't have said it any better. In today's day and age, we are faced with many lures of false happiness. We can be lured by materialism, making us believe that the latest gadgets, clothing, or more money can make us happy. We can be swayed by recognition, where we work hard for applause and approval. Even with false new age practices which tries to conform our worldly needs to our spiritual needs. But at the end of it all, our restless souls can only find rest in God alone.

At least once a year, it is good to take time to nourish our souls through a spiritual retreat. We are provided with holidays or "holy"days so we can exactly do this. These are the seasons of the Holy Week or the All Souls and All Saints day and even our Christmas breaks. Instead of just thinking of a fun outing, we can truly use these days for the Lord to feed our souls and fill us with His mighty presence.