© Maria Shevchenko | Dreamstime Stock Photos
There is an old saying that idle hands are the Devil’s workshop. While this adage may be true, the Devil also knows that a busy life can be just as effective in keeping our focus away from the things that truly matter. One of the things I enjoy doing is hiking in the many state and national parks within the tri-state area. When I first began taking hikes, I would notice there were benches along some of the main hiking paths. Each park had them. Occasionally, I would pass by people sitting at the benches as if to take a break from the rigors of the hiking trail. It seemed that on some of the trails, the benches were roughly a quarter-mile apart while others had no rhyme or reason for their frequency. Inside I laughed; it was a hiking path and anyone needing to sit and rest that often surely didn’t need to be on the path to begin with.
One afternoon, as I was hiking along one of the longer trails in Giant City State Park in southern Illinois, I walked past one of the benches when an older couple called out to me and asked me to take their picture as they sat together on the bench. After taking their picture and returning the camera, the old man told me there was a tradition that he and his wife had started long ago – when they were on a hiking trail that had benches, they would sit for at least five minutes on the bench to see why the park felt it was so important to have a bench right in that spot. I asked him if he and his wife had learned something from doing it, not really expecting the answer she gave me: “Some of the benches were there to enjoy the scenery and some benches were there to rest before you proceeded to what awaited you up the trail.” He added that the benches were there to “make sure we aren’t so busy with the hiking that we forget what else is along the trail…” I no longer see those benches along the trail the same way.
God gives benches for a reason
That lesson is one that I often forget and need to be reminded of time and again. It is easy with everything that I feel needs to be done to get so busy that I forget to enjoy God’s blessings the way and when he intended for me to enjoy them. We often read the verse written by the apostle James, Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away (James 4:14) and we correctly apply it to the condition of our immortal soul; however, there are other applications. Even David, considered a man after God’s own heart, wrote, For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth (Psalms 102:3) as a testimony that time waits for no one. When we become so busy that we put off enjoying the blessings of the Lord because we simply don’t have the time, we are actually forsaking the blessings of the Lord.
It is easy when we are busy to bypass the benches God provides for us. Just as those state parks had some benches just so that visitors could rest before tackling the trail that was ahead, God gives us benches where He wants us to stop, rest, and prepare for what lies ahead of us. I think of what the Lord told Moses during the exodus from Egypt: And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest (Exodus 33:14). God knew that Moses, with all the trials he would face, would need physical, emotional, and spiritual rest. God knows that about us as well. He knows what awaits us just as He knew what awaited Moses. He wants to go along with us and even provides us with opportunities for true and satisfying rest. Just as with anything else the Lord provides for us, we must accept the rest He offers and not focus on how busy we must stay to get everything done. In fact, the Lord even provided a day of rest each week: Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings (Leviticus 23:3). I will be the first to admit it is hard to take a day to just do nothing especially when there is so much to be done. It is easy to get busy with a whole host of leisure activities on Sunday and still not be able to get the rest we need.
Just as with the hiking trails, the second reason God gives us benches is so we can appreciate what He has done for us – in other words, to enjoy life’s scenery. Nothing lifts the soul more than seeing God’s love and compassion given us when we are weary. David knew this feeling quite well and was led by the Holy Spirit to write, Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth (Psalms 46:10). Think back to a time when you were forced to rest and then, amid your frustrations, you were able to see something that reassured you that God does still care. Sometimes that scenery are the people in our lives that simply love us unconditionally and are there for us. Sometimes its a simple pleasure, like seeing the beauty of nature, or listening to the chirping of cardinals on a spring day that serves to remind us that God is still there. When we are busy walking the trail it is easy to forget to look at the scenery.
