I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the relationship between resistance and rest.  Put another way, how does actively and openly confronting our cultural pathologies of greed, violence, and racism relate with things that restore our souls, things we enjoy for their own sake – time with friends, eating good food, quiet solitude, play, and sleep?

I find a helpful analogy in how our bodies recover from strenuous activity.  

I like to run and am fortunate I still can.  I’ve known for a while that running, like other forms of intense exercise, produces little tears in the muscles.  I only learned recently that it also causes micro-fractures in the bones.  This sounds bad, and it would be if one were just continuously running or lifting heavy weights around the clock.  What makes it a healthy practice is the rest that follows.  During these periods, the body not only repairs these tears, but becomes incrementally stronger in doing so.

It’s a bit counter-intuitive to look at someone pumping iron and consider they’re weakening their muscles.  Or to see someone at leisure and realize they’re building muscle mass and bone density.  It’s a dynamic relationship where they each need the other. 

To pick up from Sunday’s sermon, I think of the midwives Shiphrah and Puah resting and restoring themselves after the adrenaline of an intense childbirth, or after confronting the conniving Pharaoh.  I think of the wisdom of Sabbath-keeping.  I think of all the times Jesus went off by himself to pray, away from the demands of the crowds.

There is much to resist.  And there are wonderful aspects of life that are good for their own sake, restorative and pleasurable, even making us stronger.

Joel  .