Your Mental Health needs an Oasis Rest Routine

Days and weeks roll into each other and tiredness slowly seeps into your soul. When each day feels like one horrendous day upon another and the treadmill is jammed on marathon setting then you need to retreat to an oasis.

Do you have an Oasis?

Can you give yourself permission to rest there?

Who or what is driving your treadmill? Could it be you?

Recently I have been going out most evenings to our front deck for 5 minutes in the dark and just sitting in silence.

I listen to the night. The wind blowing through the tall pines, the hum of the motorway, the meowing of our cat.

In this stillness I give thanks for an Oasis amidst the noise of life. I pause for a moment and do nothing but listen.

God calls me to regularly cease. To stop, rest, be still, to listen.

Its right there in the Bible and even God needed to practice it after the most creative week in history.

In God’s caring love they say this

The Israelites will keep the Sabbath, observe Sabbath-keeping down through the generations, as a standing covenant. It’s a fixed sign between me and the Israelites. Yes, because in six days God made the Heavens and the Earth and on the seventh day he stopped and took a long, deep breath. Exodus 31:13-17 The Message

A long deep breath.

Sounds good doesn’t it. A complete day that was devoted to taking a long deep breath.

David the shepherd sings a song

God, my shepherd!

I don’t need a thing.

You have bedded me down in lush meadows,

you find me quiet pools to drink from.

True to your word,

you let me catch my breath

and send me in the right direction. Psalm 23:1-3

There is the picture again of a quiet pool, an oasis, a catching of breath.

David chose God to be his shepherd, his guide. He could have chosen the footrot demands of the sheep to be the guide. Or what about doing the tax records for the farm?

No, he chose God to be his shepherd. He invited God to lead him to an oasis grassy stillness.

David embraced the self care boundaries God had made for themselves (Father, Spirit, Son) and made them his own.

What about those Oasis experiences during your week.

Moments where you can catch your breath and be still amidst the noise.

As I write this it is early in the morning and the sun has just peeked over the hill by my home. Warm fresh new light bursts through the window. Our dogs are basking in it, fast asleep. The house is quiet. I have an oasis experience write here write now. (And yes I know the spelling is wrong). So I write and reflect at the oasis of this moment.

I still myself by this oasis, pause and soak it in. I think about the day ahead and wonder if throughout it I can find other mini oasis moments to stop, pause, listen and give thanks.

[Tweet “The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine. Mike Murdock”]

In checking my daily routine, my habits, I wonder if they are taking me closer to the well spring source of the oasis or drawing me away.

I recognise God’s call for me to engage with life and all its desert demands, but I can only do this if I have replenished myself from the still quiet waters of the oasis.

Questions to consider and leave a comment