I left a job interview early today because I was not willing to work on Sunday mornings for the first four to six months. Honestly, it was an easy decision to make today. But I am not sure it would have been as easy to make that decision a couple of months ago.

I have always known that going to church is important as a Christian. And I really, really like my church. But it's also really easy to get in the mindset that this is just something I do because I am supposed to – not because it is something that is good for me, something that allows me to rest.

A couple of weeks ago, one of the elders at my church was leading a study in Genesis, and we were focusing on rest. He brought up an interesting point that I had never considered before: we need to rest all parts of who we are, body, mind, and soul/spirit. Every other time I had heard about the need for rest, it was typically framed as taking a break from things, not necessarily doing things that are restful. For example, going to church is tiring for the body, but restful for the spirit.

My pastor's point was that each part of the person is important and needs to be rested, and how each part rests is different. But not only does each part of a person likely need to be rested differently, but each person also rests differently.

For me, hiking is restful to my mind and spirit, but not my body. Sleep is restful for all three. Reading and writing are restful for my body, and sometimes my spirit, but not my mind. Hanging out with friends is restful for my spirit, but not always for my mind or body. It's different for everyone. Each person must find what is restful to them.

This takes time and listening to how you feel in certain situations. And just because you feel tired after something doesn't necessarily mean that you didn't rest one or more of the different aspects of who you are. But things like binging TV and lounging around may not be as restful as you think either. So rest well, friends.