I know what it's like to be busy. I know the feeling throughout the day as you pick your brain to remember what's next. What's most important on your to-do list? What plans did you commit to? What plans do you have time to still invest in?

I find myself caught in a cycle of thinking, "there's some free time, what can I do in it?"

I have a friend who always tells me I need to learn how to relax, and I think I finally realize she's right. The longer I've been in college, the more I've realized how many boundaries are blurred in day to day life. Schoolwork and social life seem to be one perpetual cycle. Weekends are packed, and there is no time automatically set aside for rest.

In high school, my time was structured. School was from 8-3:30, and homework/social life was around that. Weekends were reserved for plans and rest, and then the week started over. Here, my weekends are filled with football games, projects, and after-hours study sessions. My school day is broken up differently each day, and somehow amidst an unorganized schedule, I hang out with friends and go to small groups, yet consistently skip rest.

It seems to be a never-ending cycle of how much stuff can I fill my time with. But do you know where God told us we had to do all the things all the time to be considered fulfilled? Nowhere. In fact, God tells us over and over again to be still, to rest in him, and to give him our burdens.

Yet the more I yearn for rest, the more I seem to be overburdened with outside tasks. I think this is partly because we're taught to seek rest from a free schedule when, in fact, rest should still be found within busyness. It's an inner attitude that affects outward actions:

Say no. Sit. Rest.

Get the job done, do all the things, but do it rationally and feasibly.

I heard a sermon a few weeks ago that said, "we like to stay busy because it makes us feel important." The more we do, the more we feel others want us to do. The more we feel wanted, the more we feel pride in ourselves. It's a vicious, selfish trap that is so easy to get in and hard to get out.

So, girl, slow down. Don't stop striving and doing the work, but stop feeling like you have to prove to yourself and to others that you are worthy of being busy. Because you, in your realness and most authentic self, are worthy of being still. You are worthy of rest.