Rest

Matthew 11:29-30
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find REST unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Rest for soul can be easily achieved through believing the words of Christ. Rest for the body is not always so easy. We live in a fast paced world. This is abundantly evident to anyone who drives a car on the interstate system in Birmingham, Alabama. It never ceases to amaze me when I am driving 70-75 miles an hour and someone passes me like I am standing still. Where are they going that is so important that they beat everyone else by a few minutes, all the while endangering others, not to mention theirselves. I admit that I have been guilty of driving too fast in my younger years. I have seen the error of my ways. Driving is not the only area of our lives that has been thrown into the fast lane. "Express", seems to be the catch phrase of the day. We have, express lanes at the checkout , express pay at the gas pump, quick lubes, ect. The signs at the checkout say, "20 items or less", or "10 items or less". I have seen so many people scanning other peoples buggies to check and see how many items they have. Surely they wouldn't have 11 or 21. The looks on our faces are all similar while standing in these lines. The look of "I'm in a hurry", and "I don't have time to be here", the look of frustration. It seems we rush and rush and get further and further behind. We live in a society of maximum productivity, personally and professionally. When can someone rest?

If making time to rest is becoming difficult, maybe we should pull out our dayplanners, our PDAs or whatever type of schedule you keep, and evaluate your life. Don't just "pencil in" time for rest. Put it in ink, and be sure it is not erasable ink. Hide your white out!

Without rest, (not just sleep), rest, time to do nothing, but relax, Jack and Jill are not happy campers. How you relax is an individual choice. Vacations are good, unless you have a rigid itinerary and schedule attached to it. Rest is vital to people diagnosed with MS. I find rest to be not so much a luxury now, its more a necessity. Without it I am physically wiped out. MS, by its very nature seems to exaggerate most naturally occurring feelings, and sensations. Fatigue is one of them and is not easily combated by the MS survivor. Stress makes all the symptoms of MS worse. The problem is, if you are alive, you have stress. Making time for rest and relaxation is one step toward managing stress and the hectic day to day express lane life. The attached attached link talks about stress and how to begin to help yourself: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/living-with-multiple-sclerosis/healthy-living/stress/download.aspx?id=153

I wish you Rest today!

G