Can You Find Rest In a Season of Change?

woman with a computer in her lap staring off and wondering how she can find rest amid the busyness of change

I looked up from my screen—a canvas of white painted with black words—and absentmindedly looked around the library room where others stared at their own screens. I had so much to do this week: lessons to teach, bags to pack, a podcast interview to prepare, a business English training day to brainstorm, birthday presents to purchase, a teacher-parent meeting to attend… the list went on.

And yet, in all this, I knew my greatest calling was to abide in Jesus. To learn to rest in Him.

But how? How could I learn to rest in Him amid the busyness of life? My natural tendency was to either be doing, or to sit thinking about what I needed to do!

When a Year of Transition Meets a Call to Rest

2025. A year of much and muchness.

A year that started with preparations. Preparations for the next birthday. Preparations for the next weekend trip. Preparations for the next get-together with friends and family.

And amid all this, there was the big preparation of moving house, moving church, and moving country that summer.

The first part of 2025 would be a time of downsizing possessions to whatever would be deemed worthy to pack in seven-seater car and a few airplane cases, getting the house ready to rent, and saying goodbye to loved ones and beloved places. The second part of 2025 would be spent acquiring new things, getting to know new people and new places, and putting down roots in a new dwelling.

True, we were moving to a country a three-hour plane ride away, not Timbuktu. Yet, I still found the preparations ahead daunting. And then at the beginning of January, as I thought about my resolutions for the new year, I sensed the Spirit speaking to me about scheduling regular times to pray in solitude.

How, when I have so much to do this year? I wondered. And then I was reminded of something. In December, after I’d completed my third devotional book, Faith Alive, I had sensed God speaking to me about my next book being about rest.

This, then, was the answer. I was to write about rest as I myself learned how to find rest in a season of change.

This was what God had for me and my family this year. We were to be both in a season of transition (“ready, set, go” was my phrase for the year) and finding rest amid the busyness of moving.

Learn to Find Rest In a Season of Change—And Carry That Light Forward

As I reflected, I also realized that this “ready, set, go” mentality was not just about the practical preparation of moving, but about the spiritual preparation of moving to a new country in order to make disciples. And rest was not time off from this spiritual preparation, but, in fact, a very part of it. How could I proclaim the Gospel to others if I myself did not know how to rest in God’s peace, provision, and sovereignty in my season of transition? How could I make disciples if I lived from a place of striving and control, instead of trusting the Father and living from a place of surrender?

After all, proclaiming the Gospel is not just about sharing the Gospel of peace, but about living it. Whether God calls us to proclaim the Gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, or the ends of the earth, He wants us to not only talk about the Light, but to reflect His light.

As ambassadors of Christ, we are called to shine His light in the dark places. To bring hope where there is hopelessness. To carry His peace wherever we go.

That is your calling. That is my calling. That is my family’s calling. And in case you’re wondering, which you probably are, the country my family and I have been called to is Italy, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. In the year of the jubilee—2025.


Looking for more resources on slowing down and slipping away from the chaos? Check out this article: “How to Lean In and Find Rest”

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