I can’t tell you the exact year that this happened but it was

somewhere between 10-12  years ago.

We live in a house that has a brick front complete with an archway.

One day, the girls and I came home and next to our front door on the brick

was a huge dragonfly.  It was a lovely green and although we wanted to touch it,

we just stared at it and then went inside.

We took pictures and our uninvited yet welcome guest lodged upon brick for a day and a half.

One moment that dragonfly was staying at our house and the next

it was gone as quietly as it had arrived.

Now you have to also understand that I love dragonflies as well as ladybugs.

I thought it was quite cool and I dubbed our house the dragonfly house.

Perhaps that dragonfly knew it would find a safe place with a kind innkeeper 😉

But like I said, this was years ago, I don’t think the message was widely broadcast.

That was until this past week, when it happened again.

Now we have one more child.

Caleb was out playing with some neighborhood kids and all of a sudden I notice pairs of eyes

peering up on our front porch.

I came outside and I see this:

This time it was WAY above our front door.

It stayed in this position for about a day.

Then on the second day, it moved opposite of the door to the archway.

Then it was gone.

I Googled to see why this might happen.

I didn’t find a lot of information but  one answer  caught my attention.

Dragonflies need to stop and rest, just like everyone else.

They need to rest, just like you, just like me.

Why should I be surprised that they can’t just fly endlessly?

The need for rest became very clear this past weekend.

As if I had been examining the concept of rest from the wrong

end of a telescope. The more I viewed it from the wide lens,

the farther away it appeared.

I lost my direction.

I literally got lost.

It could have been  the mixture of desiring to live a life that overflows

and the pace of life in general but somewhere and somehow rest slipped away.

At some point, the overflow must slow to a trickle.

So the days have been full and I have tried to cram more and more into spaces

that were not empty.

The space that was left for me to examine my directions to a retreat last Saturday

fell to Friday at about 10:30pm.

Not a wise decision.

Late night decisions are rarely wise.

When the minutes are ticking you closer to your pillow, there are many routes

that seem logical including the wrong one.

Google Maps let me down.

But the reality is…

I got lost.

Actually my directions  directed me fine.

They just didn’t direct me to where I needed to be.

I made a panicked call and was told that I was WAY

north.

Once again literally and figuratively.

It is humbling to be prayed for by a group of women for

your own pitiful mistake.

I will say that no matter the reason, prayer does work.

I found my way to a place called Shepherd’s Rest.

I truly could not make that destination up.

It’s nice to be welcomed when one has been lost.

It is even nicer to be embraced and not told

that you have been foolish because everyone else

found their way.

They simply were glad to see me.

Heavy sigh.

These women gave me a picture of the Shepherd who

looks for and loves lost sheep.

I think it is time to be a bit more like that dragonfly and

realize the need to stop and rest.

The funny thing is that our family didn’t bother that dragonfly.

We wanted to touch it, potentially disturbing it, scaring it off,

but we didn’t.

We just let it be.

We realized that we might not understand it ways but

that it was doing what it was designed to do.

I think we all need times of undisturbed rest.

It can seem impossible to figure out how that can coincide

with life.

I know that I must be more mindful and intentional.

To rest more on Sundays.

To say no and not feel selfish.

To take a walk.  One author  writes of taking a Sabbath walk.

This type of walk is without any purpose or need for insight or

revelation.  Simply letting your soul catch up with you.

I love this thought because I think there are very few things that

I do that don’t have purpose and productivity written in red.

When I walk, it is for exercise, for health, for relaxation, to burn

calories, and on and on.

It rarely is just to simply be.

I think I missed the point of desiring to live a life that overflows.

I think that the abundant life that Jesus declares has to do also

with taking time to rest.  Jesus gave us examples of  telling

the disciples to come away with him for a time of rest.  We witness him

leaving the multitude and going to a solitary place to pray but

also to rest.  Some translate the word pray as “time of rest”.

Rest restores our souls.

We can’t be abundant when we our souls are lacking.

Psalm 23 would  be incomplete if  the imagery

of rest was omitted.

Interesting how that psalm is worded:

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside quiet waters,

He restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness.

You prepare a table before me.

You anoint my head with oil.

I cannot find rest and the benefits if I continue

to skip around the meadow, waving at the Master and

do not allow the Him to ministry to me.

I can’t do it  myself.

Rest originates and completes itself in God.

The beauty is that He wants to do it for me.

It is not a burden or imposition for Him.

He is beckoning me to His rest.

He will be glad to see me.

So that’s my story?

A bit humbling but true.

God is making me lie down.

How are you today?

Are you in need of some rest as well?

Don’t wait until you get utterly lost before

you find the space for rest.

If God has designed a dragonfly to rest,

He most certainly has that in mind for

us as well.

Take him up on the offer to find His  beautiful

terrain and cool refreshing waters.