Take a break from life; restoring the soul is important
Whenever my niece and her family visit us, we enjoy going to Colonial Williamsburg to eat lunch at a favorite tavern, stroll down Duke of Gloucester Street, and stop in a few shops along the way. However, the main attraction for her 5-year daughter is to spend time with the sheep in the historic area. She loves to watch them graze and roam. It is truly a peaceful scene.
Earlier this year I was given a calendar illustrated by Susan Winget, an artist in Charlotte, N.C. Susan lives on an 80-acre pastoral farm, which has served as an inspiration for her artwork. The theme of this year's calendar, the Twentythird Psalm, is especially meaningful.
“The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want,” writes the Psalmist, “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.” Something about this Psalm beckons us to slow down, take a break and rest.
As the school year comes to an end, excited students welcome a summer break from early morning bus rides, busy class schedules and latenight studies. Hopefully, the time off will bring renewed energy and focus for the academic year ahead. Having a break in routine tends to refresh and restore us.
It is not only important for children, but also for adults. It is puzzling to me that more adults don't take advantage of vacation time. A recent news article in Forbes magazine reported the results of a survey of 1,200 full-time U.S. employees and found that 47% of Americans did not take all of their vacation time last year.
Reasons for not taking vacation time varied from too many projects and deadlines to not being able to disconnect or unplug from technology. In fact, 48% indicated that they check on work while they are away. Sometimes the anticipated stress of “what they would come back to” made it difficult for people to relax and unwind while on vacation.
In his book “The Lord is My Shepherd: Healing Wisdom of the Twentythird Psalm,” Rabbi Harold Kushner writes, “Animals are controlled by time. Some sleep at night and hunt for food by day, while others reverse the cycle, but they have no choice in the matter.” He points out that human beings are different. “Human beings, and only human beings, control time. We can work late, or we can take a day off.”
I confess there are times when I resist taking time off. It is easy to convince myself that I don't have time to take a break, but I am always glad when I do. A change of scenery and a different routine give me a new perspective when I return to work.
Vacations are certainly one way of relaxing our bodies and minds, but the Psalmist reminds us that the Lord also desires to restore our souls. Every day our souls are stirred by the struggles that life brings. In need of strength and courage, our souls need nourishment and renewal too.
In his book, “Praying the Psalms,” theologian Walter Brueggemann points out that people are often moved to pray and seek the divine when they are “driven to the edge of humanness.”
What drives us to the “edge of our humanness” could be as visible as a marriage failure, a difficult diagnosis, a job loss. It could be a disappointing letter, a sharp criticism or a harsh word. Brueggemann adds that it could also be a “public disturbance” such as the hurt and terror that is experienced by our own friends, community, or people we learn about through the media. Our souls, our sense of wholeness, need restoration in the midst of troubling times.
What does it mean to allow God to “restore our souls”? What brings about restoration not only to our bodies and minds, but also our souls? Both the Hebrew and Greek words for rest mean “to cease,” “to be quiet.” Perhaps restoring our souls begins with just stopping, being still, pausing to acknowledge our Creator. Worship, reading, prayer, and time with close friends and family can help restore our souls.
Kushner reminds us that restoring the soul is important. “The world asks so much of us,” Kushner writes. “We give ourselves so totally to our work, to the task of raising our family and running a home, to our volunteer commitments that we often forget to take time to nourish our souls, forgetting that we need to rely on the wisdom of the soul to guide our working and living hours.”
May the summer months ahead bring new opportunities for us all to be renewed, refreshed, and restored in mind, body and soul. The Rev. Becky Evans Glass is executive director of the Peninsula Pastoral Counseling Center in Newport News.
She can be reached at beglass@ peninsulapastoral.org.