Dear Exhausted Ohio LGBTQ+ Community: Rest is resistance. Rest is action.

Friends, I’m tired.

We’ve only been living under the Trump regime for two weeks, and I’m tired. I’m a white, cis-gender, queer pastor and nonprofit leader and I’m tired. I can only imagine how Black, Indigenous, POC, Trans, nonbinary/gender expansive, Immigrant queer, and other historically marginalized siblings must feel.

Whether we are fighting for our very existence or the existence of our friends. Whether we can pass through life relatively unmolested or we embody the bogeyman that needs to be purged from schools and the military. Whether we were born here to parents who were U.S, citizens, or our immigration status is a daily concern. Whoever we are, as marginalized people we often can’t imagine resting. 

Yet rest and relaxation are not only physical and psychological realities for humans, they are built into our cultures and religions. As a queer pastor and a queer person of faith, I know and continue to learn that rest is sacred. Rest is universally about slowing down and getting back to who we are as people and as human beings. Rest is the category of contemplation, centering and sleep. Rest allows us to reflect, consciously or otherwise, on what we have done in a day, a week, a year or longer. Rest is the space for our consciousness to make room for our unconscious mind. We all need rest, and while our methods of resting may vary, the goal is the same. In fact, we’re told in the Book of Genesis that even God rested from their work on the seventh day of creation. 

In our lives, oversaturated with the constant noise of social media, news alerts, ads, videos and other targeted interruptions, rest and relaxation are not only sacred spiritual practices, they are profound acts of resistance. Tricia Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry, has declared that rest is resistance in her book by the same name. Naps and napping, Hersey argues, are ways to resist capitalism and the white supremacy which supports it. 

Relaxation – which is perhaps a more active form of rest – too, is sacred. Throughout the gospels in my Christian tradition, Jesus spends significant time relaxing. He reclines with friends at meals and often goes off by himself to pray. Every religion and spirituality has some form of rest and relaxation built into its makeup. Many religions emphasize removing oneself from the larger society for a period of time or engaging in shorter forms of contemplation. Work can be contemplative. Thich Nhat Hanh writes persuasively about the role of mindful eating. Some people relax while running or hiking. Personally, a big cup of tea, a book and my dog do the trick. However we relax, the important part is that humans need relaxation, just as we need rest.

Like all good things, though, rest has its limits. Most of us can’t rest for too long before we need to get back to work. Just like the joy of arriving at a favorite destination, to truly appreciate rest and relaxation, we have to leave them and have time away. Rest, like work itself is, best lived in moderation.

If you’re struggling to rest because you feel you need to fight and survive, know that rest is a form of fighting back, and rest is living. Fighting, surviving and thriving require rest. Rest is a profound statement and claim about who you are and how you agitate for yourself and others. 

Blessed it be your work and blessed it be your rest. May resting grant you what you need to fight. May your resting be an example to others.  🔥

IGNITE ACTION

• To learn more about the Ohio REST Collective, an Ohio-based initiative that works with individuals, communities and organizations to promote sustainable transformation through the principles of rest, click here.