Latest / Coffee and Bible Time Podcast / Why Rest Matters: Lessons from Nature and Chronic Illness | Eryn Lynum

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Why Rest Matters: Lessons from Nature and Chronic Illness | Eryn Lynum · Coffee and Bible Time Podcast

• 1:01
  Ellen Krause: At the Coffee and Bible Time podcast.
• 1:03
  Ellen Krause: Our goal is to help you delight in God's Word and thrive in Christian living.
• 1:07
  Ellen Krause: Each week, we talk to subject matter experts who broaden your biblical understanding, encourage you in hard times and provide life-building tips to enhance your Christian walk.
• 1:18
  Ellen Krause: We are so glad you have joined us.
• 1:21
  Ellen Krause: Welcome back to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast.
• 1:28
  Ellen Krause: I'm Ellen, your host, and I'm so glad that you have joined us today.
• 1:33
  Ellen Krause: Does resting sound like just one more thing that you don't have time for?
• 1:39
  Ellen Krause: If you've been trying to keep up with a never-ending to-do list and running on empty without a chance to recharge, this conversation is for you.
• 1:50
  Ellen Krause: Today we're talking with Aaron Lynham, a biblical studies scholar who is also a certified master, naturalist, educator and national speaker.
• 2:02
  Ellen Krause: Erin's story is so powerful because it's rooted in rich theology and personal experience.
• 2:08
  Ellen Krause: As a homeschooling mom of four who also has a chronic illness, Erin knows how to live out, what it means to find rest in the middle of a very full life.
• 2:20
  Ellen Krause: In today's conversation, we're going to explore how rest was always meant to be a rhythm.
• 2:27
  Ellen Krause: We'll discuss what God teaches about the seasons of stillness and effort, both through his word and through creation, and you'll learn how to discern what activities in your life truly matter most and why honoring your limits will actually enhance your life's work.
• 2:46
  Ellen Krause: So grab your coffee and let's dive in.
• 2:50
  Ellen Krause: Erin, welcome to our podcast.
• 2:53
  Ellen Krause: I'm so excited that you are joining us today.
• 2:57
  Eryn Lynum: Thank you.
• 2:58
  Eryn Lynum: Thank you so much for having me.
• 2:59
  Eryn Lynum: I'm excited for our conversation today.
• 3:01
  Ellen Krause: Thank you.
• 3:02
  Ellen Krause: Thank you so much for having me.
• 3:03
  Ellen Krause: I'm excited for our conversation.
• 3:05
  Ellen Krause: Well, you have just such an incredibly interesting and fascinating background.
• 3:11
  Ellen Krause: After learning about your story, I understand that this topic has had a profound impact on your life.
• 3:17
  Ellen Krause: So tell us about when you first realized the importance of rest.
• 3:25
  Eryn Lynum: You know, my family and I, a few years ago we just came up against a wall, and I think a lot of us get to that point where we just realize rest is no longer optional and we realize it's critical, that this is something we need.
• 3:40
  Eryn Lynum: And that's where we were at, my husband and I.
• 3:43
  Eryn Lynum: We homeschool our four kids and we run three businesses.
• 3:45
  Eryn Lynum: But the truth is, no matter what our circumstances, no matter where we're at in life, we all face this very human condition of fatigue and overwhelm and burnout.
• 3:57
  Eryn Lynum: And so that's where we were and we realized that we couldn't keep going at the pace that we were trying to keep up with.
• 4:04
  Eryn Lynum: And we face all of this outer pressure from society to keep up with a certain pace, to stay ahead, to keep producing, to keep hustling, and we just didn't feel like that was fruitful or healthy anymore.
• 4:18
  Eryn Lynum: And so that's when we decided to start celebrating Sabbath about three and a half years ago, when we realized this is life-giving, this is something that we need for our family, for our work, for our faith.
• 4:31
  Eryn Lynum: But really I can look back and see how that was our first big step towards a restful life, but it was years before that that I can see that God was truly leading me into this deeply restful life.
• 4:43
  Eryn Lynum: I think he's so gracious like that to be bringing us along on this journey that sometimes we can't see until retrospect, until looking back and saying, oh, oh, that's what God was up to, that's what he was leading me toward.
• 4:55
  Ellen Krause: Yes, oh, absolutely, and really it's kind of just this hustle and bustle American way that we need to sort of pull ourself aside from.
• 5:08
  Ellen Krause: What has been your relationship with rest since being diagnosed with Addison's disease, and what has chronic illness taught you about your limits and how to live within them?
• 5:27
  Eryn Lynum: You know, looking back, I can see that that was really the first thing that God used to bring me into a restful life, although I wouldn't see that until two decades later.
• 5:32
  Eryn Lynum: And so, when I was 14 years old, I was preparing to go overseas for the first time, and I had never before even stepped foot on a plane, never been up in the air, and I was going to fly now to the bush of Africa and spend two months in Malawi, africa.
• 5:48
  Eryn Lynum: And so, you know, first flight was from Florida to Ethiopia, which is not a short flight.
• 5:53
  Eryn Lynum: So this was like a big deal.
• 5:56
  Eryn Lynum: And I'm 14 years old, and before you do something like this, you need to go to the doctor and get a general checkup and travel vaccine recommendations.
• 6:04
  Eryn Lynum: And so my parents took me in.
• 6:06
  Eryn Lynum: This was a few months before the trip, and we had no reason to believe that anything was wrong.
• 6:11
  Eryn Lynum: I had no strange health history, and so we just think I'm going to go in and have a checkup and continue with my trip preparations.
• 6:18
  Eryn Lynum: When the nurse took my blood pressure that day, it was 56 over 48.
• 6:23
  Eryn Lynum: That's extremely low, and so you know, when you have a vital sign off like that, it's this big red flag that something is wrong.
• 6:32
  Eryn Lynum: And so I undergo further testing and my dad, he's a researcher and he just starts researching, like what this could be, and we're looking at.
• 6:40
  Eryn Lynum: You know I had been lethargic and a little dizzy at the time, but you know I was 14.
• 6:45
  Eryn Lynum: I'm going through all these changes and we kind of chalk it up to that.
• 6:47
  Eryn Lynum: And so my dad's researching everything going on and he comes across something called Addison's disease or adrenal insufficiency, and he brings this to my doctor and, I kid you not, my doctor laughed at him.
• 6:59
  Eryn Lynum: He says no, that's extremely uncommon, especially for adolescents.
• 7:03
  Eryn Lynum: That's not what she has.
• 7:04
  Eryn Lynum: And he's testing me for things like anemia and I don't know a whole host of different things.
• 7:09
  Eryn Lynum: But he sends me to a specialist for this testing.
• 7:13
  Eryn Lynum: He says it won't hurt and a week later we get a confirmed diagnosis of Addison's disease.
• 7:20
  Eryn Lynum: And so it was what my father had found.
• 7:22
  Eryn Lynum: And so I was diagnosed with a very, very autoimmune condition where my adrenal glands have zero function and they have not worked for over 20 years now and, barring a miracle, they won't work until I have a new body and the new creation.
• 7:34
  Eryn Lynum: But your adrenal glands, of course they produce adrenaline.
• 7:38
  Eryn Lynum: They also produce key hormones, including cortisol, and that's our stress hormone.
• 7:44
  Eryn Lynum: Because God knew that we were going to live in a world cursed by sin, full of stress, and so he gave us this incredible system in our adrenal glands and with that cortisol hormone, to cope with stress, whether it be physical, mental, emotional, whatever kind of stress we face.
• 7:58
  Eryn Lynum: Only my body is broken and it cannot do that naturally.
• 8:03
  Eryn Lynum: And so, at age 14, stress became fatal to me, because in extreme cases, stress will lead to a coma and then, if untreated, it is fatal.
• 8:12
  Eryn Lynum: And so I had to learn and my parents were so, so helpful in all of this to really coach me through biblical stress management and identifying stress and sensing you know when your shoulders start going up and you can feel the stress physically in your body and knowing how to step back.
• 8:28
  Eryn Lynum: And so all of this God was really leading me into what it looks like to depend on him, to cast all my anxieties, all my cares upon him and, ultimately, to live and thrive through his gift of rest.
• 8:44
  Ellen Krause: Oh, my goodness, that's so incredible to hear your story and just how the deficit you have and then how God is completely using that to communicate this.
• 9:02
  Ellen Krause: It's just amazing how it shows the power right that God has to work through our weakest point.
• 9:11
  Ellen Krause: And I imagine, as you went through this, that nature, because you're a naturalist, now you love nature and your book is just filled with beautiful, incredible stories about God's nature.
• 9:27
  Ellen Krause: Tell us how that started shaping your perspective on rest.
• 9:35
  Eryn Lynum: So I work as a master naturalist and that basically means nature teacher.
• 9:39
  Eryn Lynum: So I went through this training and certification here in my city to really understand the local flora and fauna and ecosystems, and the reason that I pursued that training.
• 9:48
  Eryn Lynum: My passion and my degree are in biblical theology and upholding the word of truth from 2 Timothy 2.15.
• 9:56
  Eryn Lynum: And so I saw that in the scriptures.
• 9:59
  Eryn Lynum: And so I saw that in the scriptures God and Jesus use nature constantly to teach biblical truth.
• 10:05
  Eryn Lynum: We see this in the gospels when Jesus is teaching, especially with parables, that he's using things like olive branches and wildflowers and sparrows.
• 10:13
  Eryn Lynum: And then we get all these rich nature narratives strung throughout scripture, not just in Genesis, but strung from cover to cover.
• 10:21
  Eryn Lynum: And so I thought, okay, if God and Jesus use nature to teach biblical truth, then surely we can also and this is what theologians did for hundreds of years.
• 10:33
  Eryn Lynum: It's called natural theology, coming from Romans 1.20, that God's invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature are clearly perceived through what has been created, so that we are without excuse.
• 10:45
  Eryn Lynum: And so that was what really led me into this work as a naturalist, and so I'm working in this realm.
• 10:53
  Eryn Lynum: I'm guiding hikes and teaching on our podcast and writing books using nature, and then, at the same time, this is when my family just came up against this wall and realized how essential, how critical rest is and what a gift God's rest and Sabbath are.
• 11:10
  Eryn Lynum: And so I started looking at the scriptures and seeing okay, where do we see rest in scripture?
• 11:15
  Eryn Lynum: Because it's not just hinted at here and there.
• 11:17
  Eryn Lynum: The roots of rest run deep and wide throughout scripture.
• 11:20
  Eryn Lynum: So I'm looking into scripture and then I'm looking at God's other revelation, called natural revelation or general revelation of nature.
• 11:27
  Eryn Lynum: Okay, where do we see rest In creation?
• 11:30
  Eryn Lynum: And it was the same.
• 11:32
  Eryn Lynum: It's not just hinted at here and there.
• 11:34
  Eryn Lynum: It's not just hibernating animals.
• 11:35
  Eryn Lynum: Everything that God fashioned in creation thrives through rhythms of rest.
• 11:41
  Eryn Lynum: This is his original design, and when we step back into those rhythms, into those practices, then we also can thrive by his design.
• 11:50
  Ellen Krause: I love that God has designed us that way and that it's such a gift.
• 11:55
  Ellen Krause: I just want to tell you a real quick example.
• 11:58
  Ellen Krause: This past Memorial Day weekend we were up in Door County, wisconsin, which is I love Door County.
• 12:06
  Eryn Lynum: I grew up going to Door County.
• 12:07
  Eryn Lynum: Yes, very special place to me.
• 12:10
  Eryn Lynum: Yeah, I grew up in Wisconsin and that was my family's retreat.
• 12:16
  Ellen Krause: All right, so then you'll understand this.
• 12:18
  Ellen Krause: We were up in Ellison Bay, my son is named Ellison, after Ellison Bay.
• 12:24
  Eryn Lynum: Oh my goodness.
• 12:26
  Eryn Lynum: Okay, go on, go on.
• 12:27
  Eryn Lynum: So you're in Ellison Bay.
• 12:28
  Ellen Krause: We're in Ellison Bay and we're at this place called the Clearing, and the Clearing was founded by a landscape architect, Jens Jensen.
• 12:39
  Ellen Krause: And we get to this place and we all just kind of knew, you know, we wanted to just kind of go on a hike, that was going to be it.
• 12:46
  Ellen Krause: Well, this is.
• 12:47
  Ellen Krause: This place truly is just God's sanctuary of beautiful, just the natural nature little cutouts of woods that overlook the water, and these trails where you can smell the pine needles.
• 13:06
  Ellen Krause: It's just, it feels like incense all around you and you can hear the birds.
• 13:10
  Ellen Krause: And I'm telling you, every single one of us, when we got done with that, we all felt so replenished, we all felt so replenished, so full.
• 13:24
  Eryn Lynum: It was incredible.
• 13:25
  Eryn Lynum: I can picture it and I can smell the pine as you're speaking, especially having spent so many of my childhood.
• 13:34
  Eryn Lynum: Memories are right there, and it's true.
• 13:36
  Eryn Lynum: It's so incredible.
• 13:38
  Eryn Lynum: God designed it this way for us to be replenished and refreshed in the midst of his creation.
• 13:43
  Ellen Krause: Yes, well, you mentioned some examples.
• 13:47
  Ellen Krause: Tell us a little bit more about how God's creation can teach us about healthy rhythms.
• 13:56
  Eryn Lynum: You know, there's so many examples all throughout nature and it's hard for me to focus on just one or two, but we'll try.
• 14:00
  Eryn Lynum: So let's talk about bees, because right now it is springtime and all of my perennials, my native pollinator garden, is in bloom and so we have bees.
• 14:10
  Eryn Lynum: And yesterday my kids and I were out in the garden and we're watching all these bees go quite literally all the way into our penstemon flowers.
• 14:19
  Eryn Lynum: They fit perfectly, they just like nestle in there and get the sweet nectar, and of course they're getting rubbed all over with pollen that they're going to go and spread so that God's design of plants producing more of their kind could keep doing their thing.
• 14:30
  Eryn Lynum: It's just incredible, but when you think about a bee they seem like they're always busy.
• 14:35
  Eryn Lynum: We get the term busy bee, but bees also need rest, and we see that in the forager bees, and their job, of course, is to go out and forage, to go find the sweet nectar and the pollen, and when they go back to the hive they have to somehow communicate to their hive members, the other bees, where this nectar is, and so they perform this incredibly intricate movement.
• 14:59
  Eryn Lynum: It's called the waggle dance, isn't that just fun to say?
• 15:02
  Ellen Krause: the waggle dance.
• 15:04
  Eryn Lynum: And it's this figure eight flight pattern, and scientists believe that it communicates three things to the other bees First, what direction the flower patch is in.
• 15:16
  Eryn Lynum: Second, how far away the flower patch is.
• 15:18
  Eryn Lynum: And third, they even believe that it communicates to some extent the quality of the nectar that has been found.
• 15:25
  Eryn Lynum: And so to communicate those details, this flight pattern has to be incredibly detailed and intricate, and a bee cannot perform the waggle dance properly unless it's getting its daily rhythms of rest, unless it is stopping to rest.
• 15:41
  Eryn Lynum: So even busy bees need these regular rhythms of rest to be able to communicate, to be able to do their work, their fruitful work.
• 15:49
  Eryn Lynum: That God created them for and I think that's something we have to wrap our minds around is that rest is not just stopping.
• 15:56
  Eryn Lynum: Sometimes, in extreme cases, it needs to be, but what we see is that God created rest to really complement and fuel all of the work that we do, because he created us for fruitful endeavors, and so rest is really what upholds that and brings more life, more fruit, more effectiveness and power to everything we do.
• 16:19
  Ellen Krause: That's so true.
• 16:20
  Ellen Krause: Power to everything we do that's so true.
• 16:21
  Ellen Krause: Another example that I'm thinking of is art.
• 16:24
  Ellen Krause: Just, I know, because I love to do art, and for me as well, that's like you're doing, but it's just, it's so.
• 16:33
  Ellen Krause: It is that type of rest that actually fills you, fills you up Absolutely.
• 16:45
  Ellen Krause: Well.
• 16:46
  Ellen Krause: That's awesome example from nature.
• 16:46
  Ellen Krause: How would you describe God's rhythm of rest in the scriptures, and what might it look like for us to step into that today?
• 16:54
  Eryn Lynum: What we see in the scriptures again is that rest is not just hinted at.
• 16:58
  Eryn Lynum: Often our minds go to Matthew 11, where Jesus says come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, rest for your souls.
• 17:07
  Eryn Lynum: But what we see is that rest was hinted at during creation, established in the wilderness and then modeled in the life of Christ and fulfilled on Calvary.
• 17:19
  Eryn Lynum: And so let's look at hinted at during creation.
• 17:22
  Eryn Lynum: This is one of my favorite examples, because we can look at creation and of course we know okay, God worked for six days creating everything from nothing, and then he rested.
• 17:32
  Eryn Lynum: But of course God didn't need to rest.
• 17:35
  Eryn Lynum: Isaiah says God does not grow weary or tired.
• 17:38
  Eryn Lynum: So we have to ask ourselves okay, why did God rest?
• 17:40
  Eryn Lynum: And I believe one of the reasons that he rested was to stop and delight.
• 17:46
  Eryn Lynum: The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word Shabbat, which can mean to stop and delight.
• 17:51
  Eryn Lynum: And so think about God just fashioned everything from nothing.
• 17:55
  Eryn Lynum: Ex nihilo is a theological term for it.
• 17:58
  Eryn Lynum: He created everything from nothing.
• 18:00
  Eryn Lynum: So he's not just building all of the plans, he's not just like he's speaking it into place, but, as he does, he's inventing the colors and the shapes and the textures and the aromas.
• 18:10
  Eryn Lynum: And then I believe that he wanted to stop and simply take it all in, Like I can picture him strolling through creation and just listening to the birds and the melody of the river's waters and taking in the fragrances and the colors.
• 18:25
  Eryn Lynum: And this is such a strong example for us, such a beautiful model for us, because how prone are we to just finish a task or a responsibility and rush right on to the next thing?
• 18:38
  Eryn Lynum: We don't often stop to celebrate.
• 18:42
  Eryn Lynum: And so this hint of Sabbath at creation, I believe it's God inviting us into this pattern, and it truly is a pattern, because think about this God worked for six days and then rested.
• 18:53
  Eryn Lynum: But he created Adam, the first human, on the sixth day.
• 18:57
  Eryn Lynum: So Adam's first full day, the seventh day, was a day devoted and set aside to rest.
• 19:04
  Eryn Lynum: And what we see in this is that God works and then rests.
• 19:08
  Eryn Lynum: But we were always meant to begin from rest, not to work, work, work and hustle, hustle, hustle and say, okay, maybe I'll rest on the weekend, or maybe I'll rest on vacation or in retirement or when the kids are grown no, that's getting it backwards.
• 19:21
  Eryn Lynum: Or when the kids are grown no, that's getting it backwards.
• 19:23
  Eryn Lynum: God gives us this model of starting from a position of his rest, in his presence, and then we can go forward and do the fruitful work that he has called us to.
• 19:39
  Ellen Krause: You know that was something that I highlighted here in the book because I've never thought of it that way that God worked, then rested, and but man rested then worked.
• 19:45
  Ellen Krause: And I love to how you pointed out just taking that time first thing in the morning to is a way of you know spending time in God's Word, resting before you begin each day.
• 19:59
  Ellen Krause: I love that.
• 20:00
  Ellen Krause: I want to read a passage from your book, the Nature of Rest, that I think our audience will just kind of relish, because I want you to.
• 20:12
  Ellen Krause: For those of you that are listening to hear the beauty of how Erin describes things.
• 20:20
  Ellen Krause: She says picture a perennial such as an iris, peony or lavender sending up fresh, tender shoots as the ground thaws.
• 20:32
  Ellen Krause: In gardening, the best time to plant a perennial is in fall or early spring.
• 20:37
  Ellen Krause: This allows the plant time to restfully establish roots before the active growing season commences.
• 20:44
  Ellen Krause: Similarly, god calls us to begin with rest before we work.
• 20:49
  Ellen Krause: The Hebrew calendar reflects this beautifully.
• 20:52
  Ellen Krause: Tell us a little bit more.
• 20:56
  Ellen Krause: You know, as you were going through the process of writing this and using all of these examples from nature, did you just feel like, overwhelmed, like there's so many, and how did you go about that?
• 21:17
  Ellen Krause: Like?
• 21:17
  Ellen Krause: I'm seeing you as like having a journal and looking back at all your journals of things and I don't know.
• 21:24
  Eryn Lynum: tell us what that was like that's such a fun question.
• 21:27
  Eryn Lynum: The process is, you know, it's such a fun part of it.
• 21:30
  Eryn Lynum: So thank you for asking.
• 21:31
  Eryn Lynum: You know, I wouldn't say I was overwhelmed.
• 21:34
  Eryn Lynum: I would say I felt such affirmation, realizing that this truly is what God designed us for, because when you see it everywhere, that says something.
• 21:47
  Eryn Lynum: And so, as I started seeing these threads, like the perennial was one of the first ones, and I saw it because this is what my family was experiencing.
• 21:56
  Eryn Lynum: We had just moved into our new home and, as a naturalist, one thing I love doing is restoring natural native habitat.
• 22:03
  Eryn Lynum: And so we took out just I think it was 10 truckloads of juniper that had been planted with the home in like the 70s.
• 22:10
  Eryn Lynum: And so we go through this massive project and finally we clear out all the juniper and I start putting in perennial plants that will come back year after year, and native plants, those pollinating species, to really just take part in that restoration of God's creation.
• 22:27
  Eryn Lynum: And when we received these plants, because I ordered these little garden in a box kits where you get the baby plants to put in the ground and we go and we pick them up, and I had all of these major doubts because these things looked like weeds.
• 22:40
  Eryn Lynum: They're just these little clumps of leaves here and there.
• 22:44
  Eryn Lynum: I actually just ordered two more gardens and they came.
• 22:47
  Eryn Lynum: And this time I knew, this time I held on to hope because I knew I'd been through this before.
• 22:51
  Eryn Lynum: So I'm like, are these going to even grow?
• 22:54
  Eryn Lynum: Are these going to turn into anything?
• 22:55
  Eryn Lynum: But we faithfully put them in the ground and watered them and by the end of that season they were not only alive, but they had grown and some of them even had a few blossoms on them.
• 23:04
  Eryn Lynum: And then the weather turns cold and they start to dwindle and they look like they're dying.
• 23:12
  Eryn Lynum: And so I'm thinking okay, are these things going to make it through the winter?
• 23:15
  Eryn Lynum: Will they come back?
• 23:16
  Eryn Lynum: And sure enough, in the spring, little green shoots pop up and they come back.
• 23:22
  Eryn Lynum: And they come back bigger and more beautiful and more vibrant and more fruitful.
• 23:27
  Eryn Lynum: And now those plants that this will be, I believe, their third summer.
• 23:30
  Eryn Lynum: They are bursting with blossoms and filling the garden with life and swarming insects and aromas, and the secret to a perennial and their longevity are those seasonal pauses of rest where they pull in all their energy, their resources and focus on their roots.
• 23:50
  Eryn Lynum: So that was one of the first ones that I saw and I started pulling on that thread okay, where else do we see rest?
• 23:56
  Eryn Lynum: And another early one that I saw was at the time my family and I were really getting into birdwatching.
• 24:00
  Eryn Lynum: That's a big hobby of ours that we do together, my husband and me.
• 24:02
  Eryn Lynum: And really getting into bird watching, that's a big hobby of ours that we do together, my husband and me and our four kids.
• 24:07
  Eryn Lynum: And so I'm learning about all these different kinds of birds.
• 24:10
  Eryn Lynum: And I discovered something very interesting about a hummingbird and that's why the hummingbird is actually on the cover of the book.
• 24:17
  Eryn Lynum: And it's an opening analogy of the book, because when you think about hummingbirds you often don't equate them with rest.
• 24:23
  Eryn Lynum: Like, what do you picture when you picture a hummingbird?
• 24:26
  Ellen Krause: A little, teeny, tiny bird that's moving so fast, you can't hardly even see it.
• 24:31
  Ellen Krause: Yeah, you can't.
• 24:34
  Eryn Lynum: It's a blur of motion and the little hummingbird.
• 24:35
  Eryn Lynum: They have to visit 1,000 to 2,000 flowers every day to get the nectar that they need, and so their wings will flap up to 70 times every second and their tiny little hearts will beat around 1200 times a minute.
• 24:50
  Eryn Lynum: They are constantly in motion, but what sustains them is a strategy called torpor, and torpor is this deeply restful state.
• 24:59
  Eryn Lynum: You can liken it to a daily hibernation, where the little bird is going to lower its body temperature by about 50 degrees, conserve all of its energy, and it becomes unresponsive, to the point where people have found hummingbirds in torpor and thought they were dead.
• 25:15
  Eryn Lynum: Or sometimes, if they're clinging to a feeder or a branch, if they fall upside down, they'll actually still be clinging, but they're so deep at rest they have no idea they're hanging upside down.
• 25:25
  Eryn Lynum: So they're completely unresponsive, and it's this strategy that allows them to go about their fruitful work.
• 25:32
  Eryn Lynum: So, again, god designed them for this work of gardening, of pollinating the plants so they can reduce more of their own kind.
• 25:40
  Eryn Lynum: But it depends on rest, and so this was the process of just studying the scriptures and studying creation together and seeing all of these overlaps and really coming to this conclusion of rest and work are not separate.
• 25:55
  Eryn Lynum: They are meant to complement each other.
• 25:59
  Ellen Krause: Absolutely.
• 26:00
  Ellen Krause: And that rest I think of your example that you had in there about birds that travel incredible distances across the ocean, migrating.
• 26:12
  Ellen Krause: It's mind blowing.
• 26:13
  Ellen Krause: But just the importance of the ahead of time, the building, the extra weight and all of that.
• 26:21
  Ellen Krause: It's just incredible how that rest prepares for good things to come after that rest right To be fruitful.
• 26:30
  Ellen Krause: Well, let's get into some practical advice for our listeners here.
• 26:34
  Ellen Krause: Something that you mentioned quite a bit is vital activity.
• 26:39
  Ellen Krause: Can you share a little bit about what you mean by that and why it matters?
• 26:46
  Eryn Lynum: When we think about that word vital, being pertaining to life, something life-giving, something that supports life, we need to really decide in our lives.
• 26:55
  Eryn Lynum: We need to take a good, hard look at the activities that we are allowing into our days, into our lives, and ask are they vital?
• 27:02
  Eryn Lynum: Are they supporting what God has called us to?
• 27:06
  Eryn Lynum: Are they giving life to our faith, to our families, to our communities?
• 27:10
  Eryn Lynum: And I believe that rest is a vital activity, that it's essential, that it's critical, and we see this again in animals.
• 27:18
  Eryn Lynum: Animals are consumed all day long with survival.
• 27:22
  Eryn Lynum: They are just focusing on finding food and reproducing because that's what God called them to and finding shelter, and so you watch them and they're always busy with these things.
• 27:32
  Eryn Lynum: But they also count rest as a vital activity.
• 27:36
  Eryn Lynum: These creatures, they have to rest in order to be able to do all the work.
• 27:41
  Eryn Lynum: And so we have to change our minds about rest.
• 27:44
  Eryn Lynum: We have to see it no longer as lazy work or idle or ineffective, because that's what society will tell us it is, or make us feel like it is.
• 27:54
  Eryn Lynum: Like, if we stop to rest, oh well, you're going to get behind or you're not contributing enough, you're not producing enough, like society and culture just tell us hustle, hustle, hurry, hurry.
• 28:09
  Eryn Lynum: But we have to change our minds around this and see rest as a vital activity that not only gives life but supports life.
• 28:17
  Eryn Lynum: And so what's the alternative?
• 28:18
  Eryn Lynum: If we're not resting and building in these rhythms and practices of rest, well, it's going to rob us.
• 28:24
  Eryn Lynum: We read in John 10, 10, that Jesus came to give us life and life abundantly.
• 28:28
  Eryn Lynum: The enemy came to steal and rob, and I believe that he does that through this lie of hustle and that as we rebuke that lie and step back into God's rest, that's when we can more fully experience Jesus's abundant life.
• 28:48
  Ellen Krause: So true, and I think, when I think of those vital activities and I love how you said that something that's vital isn't necessarily something that has to be done for somebody else to meet some deadline or something like that.
• 29:05
  Ellen Krause: Instead, it's more things that are life giving and that incredible need to set aside all of that and trust God that he will allow the work that needs to be done in the other six days of the week and that we can take that day of rest.
• 29:27
  Ellen Krause: What might it look like for someone to do assessment of their activities and determine what's most important?
• 29:39
  Eryn Lynum: This really begins with figuring out our values and what is important, what we feel God has called us to.
• 29:46
  Eryn Lynum: And if your listeners would like to really deep dive into this, my husband and I created a family values guide and it's free on my website, erinlynumcom slash values, and they can get that full guide that really helps you walk through.
• 29:59
  Eryn Lynum: But what it does and what your listeners can do is really ask themselves, you know, take stock of, look at your calendar, look at your commitments, look at your responsibilities, even coming up in the next couple of months, and ask yourself do these reflect what we deeply value?
• 30:14
  Eryn Lynum: So of course, you have to figure out first what you do deeply value, but then looking at your activities and really deciding okay, does this reflect our values, does this uphold our values or is this extra fluff?
• 30:26
  Eryn Lynum: If it's extra fluff, this is really hard, but it might be time to trim that, and a lot of this is just building margin back into our lives so that we have the space in our minds, in our hearts, in our agendas, to rest.
• 30:41
  Eryn Lynum: And so it's that hard initial work of asking yourself do my activities, does my agenda, reflect what God is calling me to?
• 30:55
  Ellen Krause: Are they those vital activities that are bringing life and supporting life and that's such an incredible, deep, soul-fulfilling way of looking at it.
• 31:04
  Ellen Krause: Because I was thinking about in the business world how they have you put in quadrants like urgent but not important, and you're trying to define your activities that way.
• 31:18
  Ellen Krause: But I love here that we're asking ourselves, we're taking the time to say what do I truly value and is how I'm spending my time.
• 31:30
  Ellen Krause: Reflective of that, there might be someone listening who's struggling with this idea of Sabbath and taking a whole day to rest.
• 31:43
  Ellen Krause: Where would you encourage them to start?
• 31:48
  Eryn Lynum: I recognize that the whole day concept can be a big challenge and a big barrier even, and so you know, I think that is the ideal.
• 31:56
  Eryn Lynum: That's a God's original design that we see he established in Exodus 16 with the Israelites.
• 32:01
  Eryn Lynum: But if that is overwhelming, don't let it stop.
• 32:05
  Eryn Lynum: You Start smaller.
• 32:06
  Eryn Lynum: Find four hours during the week, and it might be a Wednesday afternoon, that's fine.
• 32:11
  Eryn Lynum: You're also not committing to that day and time forever.
• 32:14
  Eryn Lynum: It's your starting point.
• 32:15
  Eryn Lynum: Just get started and see what God does with it.
• 32:18
  Eryn Lynum: When we think back to that first establishment of the Sabbath in Exodus 16, god gave the Israelites this command, but they didn't have much context for it Because up until this point there wasn't a Sabbath.
• 32:32
  Eryn Lynum: This is the first mention of Sabbath, and so this was a call to faith, and I believe that Sabbath and rest are always a step of faith.
• 32:40
  Eryn Lynum: They feel risky, they're counter-cultural, like nothing in culture is setting us up to succeed at this, and so we have to depend on God, we have to take that first step.
• 32:51
  Eryn Lynum: So find a day and a time and protect it fiercely, and a way that you can do that is write two lists and think back to that concept we talked about, about Sabbath being to stop and delight.
• 33:04
  Eryn Lynum: So your first list is your stop list.
• 33:07
  Eryn Lynum: Write down things that feel heavy, things that send you into hurry and hustle.
• 33:11
  Eryn Lynum: Probably any kind of regular work.
• 33:14
  Eryn Lynum: Probably anything to do with screens, notifications, social media, email.
• 33:18
  Eryn Lynum: It might be spending money, it might be driving in traffic.
• 33:21
  Eryn Lynum: These are those regular things, a lot of them necessary, some of them not, but those things that we are going to step away from and set aside and stop for our Sabbath, for your time of rest, and then write a list of things you delight in.
• 33:35
  Eryn Lynum: This might be hard at first, because a lot of us simply have forgotten or don't know what we delight in, but these are those things that are refreshing and inspiring and turn our thoughts to Christ.
• 33:46
  Eryn Lynum: It might be journaling by hand, painting, doing art, gardening.
• 33:51
  Eryn Lynum: It might be going on a walk in creation or a hike.
• 33:54
  Eryn Lynum: It might be cooking a fresh meal.
• 33:56
  Eryn Lynum: And people ask me isn't cooking and gardening work?
• 34:00
  Eryn Lynum: Well, you have to really think what is refreshing, because what my husband and I have found is a lot of our work is spent on the computer.
• 34:09
  Eryn Lynum: So both of us run businesses and a lot of our work is behind a computer.
• 34:12
  Eryn Lynum: So on Sabbath, we love nothing more than to be out in the yard and gardening, and I love like getting my hands dirty and being surrounded by the butterflies and the bees and the flowers and feeling that restorative work.
• 34:26
  Eryn Lynum: So, yes, I might call it work, but it doesn't feel like it.
• 34:29
  Eryn Lynum: And the moment it starts to feel like work, that's when I step away from it and I'll go pick up a book or lay in the hammock.
• 34:35
  Eryn Lynum: So now you have, okay, your day or your time that you're protecting fiercely.
• 34:40
  Eryn Lynum: I go so far as to set an away message on my email that tells people hey, I'm Sabbathing, I'm resting with my family, I'll get back to you next week, so they know I'm not going to see or respond to their message.
• 34:50
  Eryn Lynum: I tuck my laptop in the closet, I put my phone on focus mode so the only calls I can receive are from my mom in case of emergency, and so it's really just protecting that time.
• 35:01
  Eryn Lynum: And now you have your list of regular activities you're going to stop and set aside and things that are going to bring you back into delight.
• 35:10
  Ellen Krause: You know, Erin, I started doing that a few years ago as well, and I'm telling you it's astounding how life-giving taking that time really is.
• 35:24
  Ellen Krause: And for those of you that are thinking, oh, I don't have that much time, I'll tell you what even like 30 minutes of doing an art project or playing tennis or gardening or whatever your thing is, that small amount can really, really rejuvenate you for sure.
• 35:47
  Eryn Lynum: Yeah, it absolutely can.
• 35:49
  Eryn Lynum: We talk about that in the book as Selah pauses, because, yes, we have the Sabbath, but we also need to work restful rhythms into our everyday lives to be sustaining our work throughout the week.
• 36:01
  Eryn Lynum: And so these regular pauses, yes, whether it's a half hour in the garden or walking down the street or along a riverside or sitting for a cup of tea, like five minutes is powerful and it can punctuate our days with these restorative moments that really just give us so much.
• 36:18
  Eryn Lynum: They just give us so much sense of God's presence, and his presence is restful, and so I wholeheartedly agree that don't think, oh, I don't have time, try five minutes.
• 36:33
  Ellen Krause: As we start to wrap things up here, erin there's.
• 36:38
  Ellen Krause: You mentioned a little bit about Addison's disease and tell us, for those that are listening, who might be struggling with some type of a chronic or invisible illness.
• 36:52
  Ellen Krause: What would you encourage them?
• 36:55
  Ellen Krause: What would you want them to hear today?
• 37:02
  Eryn Lynum: That God sees your invisible illness and that he wants to meet you there and that one way he wants to meet you there is through his gift of rest.
• 37:12
  Eryn Lynum: Like we know that, like even from science and medicine, rest is good for us in every single way physical, spiritual, mental and that's because God designed it that way.
• 37:25
  Eryn Lynum: In the book I pose the question.
• 37:28
  Eryn Lynum: I'm talking about that rest is God's provision for us, that he provides for us to rest, but also he provides for us through rest.
• 37:37
  Eryn Lynum: And I pose the question what is that thing that you have been asking God for?
• 37:42
  Eryn Lynum: What have you been praying for?
• 37:44
  Eryn Lynum: Could rest be his response to that prayer?
• 37:50
  Eryn Lynum: You know, sometimes we're so prone to just rush right by it, and that's his provision all along.
• 37:56
  Eryn Lynum: It's where he wants to meet us, and so I would just encourage listeners, specifically those with chronic illness, with invisible illness take a risk on rest.
• 38:06
  Eryn Lynum: God's going to bless that.
• 38:08
  Eryn Lynum: This is his design.
• 38:10
  Eryn Lynum: His word does not return void and his word says that rest is good for us.
• 38:14
  Eryn Lynum: And so take that risk and see what he does with it and see how he provides for you in that.
• 38:21
  Ellen Krause: Amen, amen to that.
• 38:23
  Ellen Krause: Well, how can people find out more information about you and the book and all that you're doing?
• 38:33
  Eryn Lynum: Thank you.
• 38:33
  Eryn Lynum: So the Nature of Rest, what the Bible and Creation Teaches Us About Sabbath Living, is available wherever you buy books, including, of course, amazon, but also on my website.
• 38:43
  Eryn Lynum: My website is my name, which is spelled a little funny it's E-R-Y-N-L-Y-N-U-Mcom.
• 38:51
  Eryn Lynum: We also have a lot of free resources on there.
• 38:54
  Eryn Lynum: I mentioned the Family Values Guide, but we do have a full Family Sabbath Guide to walk you through step-by-step making those lists, that stop list, that delight list.
• 39:02
  Eryn Lynum: It has a Sabbath shopping list, troubleshooting questions for when Sabbath gets hard.
• 39:07
  Eryn Lynum: So if you're really asking yourself, you feel in your soul that this is what God has for you, but you don't know.
• 39:13
  Eryn Lynum: The next step go download that guide.
• 39:15
  Eryn Lynum: It's at erinleinemcom.
• 39:17
  Eryn Lynum: Slash family Sabbath.
• 39:18
  Eryn Lynum: And also on my website is our podcast for kids and families.
• 39:23
  Eryn Lynum: It's called Nat Theo Nature Lessons Rooted in the Bible and we teach real science, but always bringing in biblical theology so that we are nurturing the faith of our families while we're learning about God's creation.
• 39:35
  Eryn Lynum: And you can listen wherever you enjoy podcasts Apple, spotify, youtube, as long as right on my website.
• 39:42
  Ellen Krause: Fantastic.
• 39:43
  Ellen Krause: Well, we will make sure to include links to all of those things in our show notes, Erin.
• 39:48
  Ellen Krause: Before I let you go, though, I have to ask you a few of our favorite questions what Bible is your go-to Bible and what translation is it?
• 39:59
  Eryn Lynum: I love this question.
• 40:00
  Eryn Lynum: I have my Bible that I used during Bible college where I met my husband, and it's a NASB 1995, actually.
• 40:10
  Eryn Lynum: And it was really sweet because right before I left for college I was 17 years old, and right before I left my father gifted me this Bible and it was actually from his college days and so that's one that I always keep with me and it has all my notes from Bible college.
• 40:24
  Eryn Lynum: But I have since moved to the ESV.
• 40:26
  Eryn Lynum: I find it a little more accurate word for word.
• 40:30
  Eryn Lynum: I love Greek and Hebrew studies and that's why we brought so much Greek and Hebrew into the Nature of Rest.
• 40:35
  Eryn Lynum: Every single day has a deep dive into Greek or Hebrew, because I love looking at the original language and getting a bigger context of what God was saying.
• 40:44
  Eryn Lynum: So I use the Thompson Chain Reference Bible and it's the translation ESV.
• 40:50
  Ellen Krause: Awesome, okay, do you have any favorite Bible journaling supplies that you like to use?
• 40:57
  Eryn Lynum: I am real simple.
• 40:58
  Eryn Lynum: I'm a journaler at heart and so I just have my Bible and then I have my journal and then I have fine point.
• 41:05
  Eryn Lynum: Sharpie pens is my go-to for writing, but not in the Bible, because they bleed and so I use gel pens in natural colors I'm not the real bright color, I like the earth tones and the green but gel pens in the Bible, sharpie in the journal.
• 41:20
  Ellen Krause: Okay, awesome.
• 41:21
  Ellen Krause: Last question what is your favorite app or website for Bible study?
• 41:26
  Eryn Lynum: tools I use a couple of different ones, especially when I'm writing our podcast episodes, because I also love taking the kids into the Greek and the Hebrew, and so I will use Blue Letter Bible to do the Greek and Hebrew studies because they have the Strong's references.
• 41:40
  Eryn Lynum: But then for a lot of them I'll dive deeper using the Logos Bible software.
• 41:45
  Ellen Krause: Yes, we love Logos also.
• 41:47
  Ellen Krause: All right, awesome, we will put links to all of her favorites in the show notes as well.
• 41:52
  Ellen Krause: Erin, thank you so much for joining us today, for sharing your heart and your story and just the wisdom that you offer in this area of rest.
• 42:06
  Eryn Lynum: Thank you.
• 42:07
  Ellen Krause: Thank you so much for having me and for the conversation, right.
• 42:08
  Ellen Krause: If you're listening today and resonated with this message, I encourage you to check out Erin's book the Nature of Rest and her kids podcast, nat Theo.
• 42:19
  Ellen Krause: And, as always, if you enjoyed this episode, would you take a second to leave a review or share this with a friend?
• 42:27
  Ellen Krause: We would be so grateful.
• 42:28
  Ellen Krause: Until next time, keep seeking Jesus one quiet moment at a time.
• 42:33
  Ellen Krause: Have a blessed day.