God worked six days to create the world and on the seventh day, he rested.

I’m sitting in a quaint cafe in the remote town of Utopia, Tx having breakfast and chatting with friends online while listening to all the locals. It is restful — for me. The waitresses here on the other hand, maybe not so much.

We are visiting Cammi’s sister and her husband in their recently completed home that sits on the side of a mountain. They built it themselves over the last five years and I mean THEY built it themselves. The place is beautiful and the scene from their porch is heavenly. It is amazingly restful. But behind this rest, are thousands of hours of focused activity. And even though it is mostly complete, the reality is that it will require ongoing work to maintain.

In the beginning, God created… He was working, busy with creation. Then he rested – which we frequently call recreation – which is to say re-creation, which means to create again or anew. Land set aside for renewal has very active processes going on even though no crop is generated that year.

Rest is not passive but very active. Without the work of rest, renewal and recreation, the soil of our soul will become spent and worthless – and we will produce a diminishing return with our lives.