Night Before Day

Now, I don’t have the knowledge nor the desire to get into any theological debates, but I did learn something very cool and very interesting today…

The Beginning

 ¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was formlessand empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Genesis 1: 1-3

Read it again.

First the world was dark. Then there was light.

There was evening, and there was morning – the first day.

So night came before day.

Said another way, the 24-hour time period that we call “one day” actually began with the dark portion of the time period and ended with the light portion of the time period.

Rest Comes First

This morning I began a new Zoom Bible Study. It’s not new; I’m just new to the group.

Adoringly called the “Trophy Wives,” we are a group of sports’ wives from all over the country, all walks of life, all backgrounds, all sports, and all levels of sport. It is an incredible, beautiful, diverse, and encouraging group. We are led by a friend that I’ve written about before, and as always, I am completely in awe of her ability to make the lesson come alive.

We are studying the book Seamless by Angie Smith.

I actually purchased this book some time ago, but I never jumped into it. I guess I was supposed to have it on hand for just the right time. And that time is now 💕

You can tell by the furiously-scribbled notes that everything we discussed today was calling out to me in a big way:

Let’s go through it one line at a time…

This is the part that kind of blew my mind: rest comes first.

A new day begins with night, so rest comes first.

A new day is not intended to begin with waking up to a jarring alarm at first light, rushing to drop kids at school, feeling behind before arriving at work, running full-speed ahead on a hamster wheel for 8+ hours, rushing back home to fly through dinner and activities, and falling into bed when we feel like we’ve produced enough throughout the day to earn a few hours of rest. All so we can wake up to a jarring alarm at first light and do it all over again.

Sarah taught us today that this is a slave mentality: produce first to earn rest.

In our coaching world, that slave mentality translates into “win now or be fired, win now or be attacked, win now or be fail the people depending on you, win now or lose your livelihood.”

That thought process – the slave mentality – is debilitating.

In any setting, any job, any career, that produce to rest mindset is dangerous.

What if we flipped that concept upside-down? What if we followed the Biblical example?

What if we worked from rest rather than worked for productivity?

Those aren’t hypothetical questions. I am truly interested in your thoughts.

I’m eager to hear your responses because I don’t have the answers.

I don’t know how to shake up the accepted norm. I don’t know how to create a world that rests first, takes care of ourselves first, finds peace first.

It sounds so far-fetched, but just think what it could look like. Think what that might feel like!

I AM ENOUGH

This morning’s Bible Study ended with this declaration and this beautiful song:

God says that I am enough.

I don’t have to be a slave to productivity. I am NOT a slave to productivity!

Whatever I accomplish, whatever I get done, whatever I don’t get finished today…I did enough, I produced enough, I am enough.

“I Am” by Nicole C. Mullen

What a perfect reminder 💛

With love and hugs,

Ashli