Finding Rest

My wife and I had the opportunity to go on a family vacation with my parents and my sister and her family to Honolulu, Hawai’i. We decided to go on the vacation because my parents will be moving back overseas in February so they wanted to spend some more time together before they went back. It was, of course, a wonderful time being in 70-80 degree weather while the temperatures back home dropped to the 20s and 30s. We went to the beach a few times and ate some really good food. We went to the Honolulu Zoo which was 5 minutes away from our hotel on foot. We spent a lot of time together as a family and it was a very special and blessed time.

At the same time, we had our two sons with us on a plane and going through busy streets and airports and shopping centers. There was a constant vigilance we had about keeping an eye on both of them. It made things stressful because we compromised a lot on screen time for our two year old. My 4-month old was having some sort of reaction to the humidity or the hotel sheets or something because he was getting rashes all over his body for the majority of our trip. It made for a stressful time on some portions of the trip.

So when friends asked me when I got back: “Hey, how was Hawai’i?”, I always have a slight pause when I answer: “It was…good!”

Because for some reason, I tend to remember the stressful parts more than the restful parts. I have to remember past all the frustration of doing my son’s seatbelt in the plane over and over again because he learned how to undo it. I have to remember past the frustration of waking up multiple times throughout the night because my baby’s sleep schedule got screwed up. I have to remember past the times I was tired and my feet were aching while holding my son in my arms because he didn’t want to walk around in the zoo.

And while, overall, I’d say my trip to Hawai’i with my family was a great time and a much needed respite away from the last few months at the end of 2021, it taught me a valuable lesson about rest.

Namely, that my rest cannot and should not be found in my surrounding circumstances. It must be rooted deeply in the joys that Christ has given me.

It’s harder than it sounds. It’s hard finding rest in Christ with huge poopy diapers at LAX while your flight is about to board and it’s one of the last diapers you packed for your whole trip. Where do I find joy in a situation like that? There’s only more stress!

As I reflect on my vacation and what I feel like I’ve learned, it’s the importance of trying to find rest in Jesus. He is why I can find joy in chasing my kid around in a busy LAX terminal. He is where I find strength so I can toss my kid in the air when I’m tired of walking around all day. He is why I can find rest when I see the blood on my baby’s neck from him scratching his rash all night without us knowing.

Those moments I look back and realize how I had been a poor father or an unwise husband or an ungrateful son to my parents or a unkind brother to my sister or a sinfully partial uncle to my nephew are the moments I realized I needed to rest in him the most. The effect is two-fold: I could have rested in Christ in those moments and never regretted it like I do now and I can find rest for my soul knowing that through Christ’s sacrifice, I am forgiven and empowered to be a better father/husband/son/brother/uncle by His Spirit.

A week in Hawai’i is a great way to find rest if you can remember past all the stress and anxiety to get there and back. An eternity in heaven is the ultimate rest that can only be found in Christ in whom we find relief and joy as we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.