by Clint Wilson
[This blog is a reflection on the sixth and final week in our Lenten guide, “The Art of Presence: Practices for the Time of Lent.” This guide encourages daily habits oriented toward core, spiritual practices—in this week’s case, the art of Rest. If you missed these materials and would like to receive them, please email Clint (clint@citychurch.org).]
Did you hear the big news? The identity of the British artist known only as “Banksy,” famed for his secretive graffiti and performance art antics, has been allegedly uncovered by journalists at Reuters. Their findings were published only a couple of weeks ago. I only know this because as I thought about “rest,” I thought about the Banksy-helmed documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, a critique of the rabid over-commercialization of art and our consumeristic approach to the nature of “beauty.” When I went to remind myself of some of the finer points, I discovered this fairly significant development in the art world today.
The author of Hebrews uses a really interesting word to describe our pursuit of rest: “enter.” It’s as if rest is a place: a city, perhaps, with walls and walkways, towers and turrets. To desire rest requires making a journey toward it and, indeed, into it. In this case, our progress is the exact opposite of Banksy’s ironic documentary might suggest: we don’t experience the real thing and then cut our exit through the facsimiles and falsities vying for our wallets or attention. No, we must push our way through the facsimiles and performances of false selves and counterfeit appearances, we must exit from a world of distractions so as to enter into the rest promised to us by God.
To achieve rest is to “enter his rest” (Heb. 4:1). And to enter his rest is to make a plan, to chart a journey toward the fortress that is God’s rest. In fact, David makes that connection plain in Psalm 62: “My soul finds rest in God,” he says in verse 1, before concluding verse 2 with the words “He is my fortress.” A fortress is a mighty fine place to find rest from the weary world beyond.
Thus, the question becomes: How might we move more quickly through the “gift shops” of our lives, those spaces full of knickknacks and trinkets? (And, mind you, I love a good trinket.) How can we get to the real thing, where we are promised real rest—the ability to let our hair down, to feel at home, and to be who we were made to be?
PRACTICE #6: REST
The Practice: Recasting rest as a place between emptiness and overflowing, finding rest that actually feels restful.
The Point: Rest requires intentional planning and loving boundaries, which means that one does not simply “stumble” into rest.
The Purpose: What must change in my life so that God-given “Rest” can be a regular rhythm?
Key Verse: Psalm 62:1–12