This past weekend, I got to join my church’s youth group on a ski trip to New Mexico. It was a long 12 hour drive to the ski resort, and I noticed something new on this trip, that I hadn’t experienced before. Throughout the drive, someone’s phone was always plugged into the car charger. Students took turns with the charger, but someone always needed it. In the past I’ve limited my phone use to texts and calls, which doesn’t use data and also saves my battery power, so I only needed to charge my phone at night. But that isn’t the norm anymore. Although I didn’t need to use the car charger on this trip, I can see how it’s becoming a necessity to always have a charger on hand.
And this observation brings me to my real revelation from the trip. Our phones need to be recharged, but what about us? I found myself reading in Exodus during our trip, and was reminded of when God first instructed the Israelites to take a Sabbath rest. Now this doesn’t seem like a hard rule to follow, I mean God is telling us to take a break from work. I love that idea! But actually doing it, well that’s gotten tricky. It seems like more and more, our vacations, our breaks, our time off, is not refreshing, it’s work too. Planning and organizing, traveling and catching up. It’s really hard to just stop. But just like the phone, there are consequences for us if we don’t take time to recharge. A phone will ‘die’ or shut off, and a person can burn out, get sick, or hit a wall.
God gave us the command to rest for a reason. He knows we need it, and it’s not just so we don’t get overwhelmed and crash, but so we stop and remember what’s important. In the busyness of the work week, it’s easy for me to think that emails, calls, and projects, are really important. But getting things checked off my “to do” list is not what life is all about. And taking a break from that routine and spending some time with God, helps me remember that life is all about Him. This weekend, God helped me do that.
Maybe even if you got President’s Day off you still don’t feel rested. I want to encourage you to take some time to recharge and be with God. To let Him refresh you and remind you of what’s important. After all Jesus says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”-Matthew 11:28-30
I think we can all benefit from a recharge with God.
NovelSisters 
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