Rest and immortality

The Lord is my shepherd, hence I am resting. As I am resting, I will live a long life. This is the abstract of the famous Psalm 23 that we know since our childhood. Resting does mean being dormant without doing any work. It is being in a sober, relaxed state without anxiety or nervousness.

The lifespan of fast animals are low. But take the tortoises for instance, it is believed that they live longer because their growth and metabolism happen in a slow pace. Tortoises see the sunrise and sunset everyday. But it does not have a clock or calendar as we do.

If we give the tortoise a task, and fasten a wrist watch on its foreleg, and a calendar around its neck, it will also die sooner because of depression.

God told Adam and Eve to subdue rule over the earth, and to the disciples, he said, ‘go and make disciples of all nations.’ But He did not give them a timeline to complete their task. A farmer in a rural area, lives healthy without diabetes and hypertension not only because of the natural, healthy foods he eats, but because of the quiet lifestyle he lives. An IT professional living in an urban city dies of cardiac arrest at 40 years of age, not only because of pizza, burger or the junk he eats but also because of the stress he takes in everyday.

We may work for a governmental organization or a private firm, or we could be entrepreneurs, but we are supposed to get our work done within a given time. But we use our spiritual wisdom only to know how to succeed in that work and how to earn millions of money and buy properties. We do not utilize that spiritual wisdom to learn how to rest. God made Sabbath important only to teach us about resting.

Assume that you and your family members are going to live for 969 years like Methuselah, imagine how sober and moderate your life would be. You will not strain yourself much to have your own home by entangling yourself into loan, EMI, over-time work and all that. You will not take it to heart even if your son is detained in the same class, you will let him progress at his own pace. You will never force them to pass some difficult entrance exam that is beyond their ability.

We are forcing ourselves to do certain things within a certain time, this stress reduces our lifespan. Undoubtedly, we have to complete our tasks within a given time. I am not asking you to throw your clocks and calendars away. Christ Jesus also came to the earth which had the same environment then. He was given only 33 years, wasn’t He? Nonetheless, we should learn from Him, how He lived moderately and did whatever He was supposed to. We do not read anywhere in the Bible about Christ being anxious. He was sound asleep in the boat even when the ocean was tumultuous.

He depended on His Father completely. He rested. That was the secret of his mind and physique being so healthy.

The one who believes in immortality has a wide perspective. The stress of accomplishing things at a certain time goes away from him. Consequently, his life becomes moderate and cool naturally. This helps in increasing his lifespan. It is the destiny of Satan to be anxious because he knows that his time is short. And he knows that he is going to be destroyed forever. Why should we force ourselves into such an anxious lifestyle when we are given eternal life?

If you do not believe in immortality yet, at least try to believe that you will live longer. Death and the fear of death put us in stress to complete tasks within a particular time. That is why man thinks that he has to accomplish something before his death. Not success before dying, but defeating death is the real success!