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Ensure that your group arrives into a restful environment. If you running around like a headless chicken is the first thing the young people encounter, asking the group to explore Christian rest will be much harder! Try to create an atmosphere which your group will find restful; this will mean different things to different groups and ages, and does not always equal silence or slowness, but the most important marker of this will be a relaxed and at peace leader, or team of leaders.
Once everyone has arrived and had a chance to be seen and welcomed, provide your group with pens and paper and encourage everyone to get into a comfortable position. Explain that this session will be all about godly rest, and that as a group, you are seeking to experience rest in Christ, and learn about what kind of rest God calls us to.
THE EXAMEN PRAYER
Invite the young people to take part in an examen prayer. Examen is a very simple ancient prayer exercise, credited to St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), including four steps: presence, gratitude, review and response. Explain that the examen will explore the last 24 hours or so in prayer, and that today the focus will mostly be on our work and rest patterns.
SEEKING GOD’S PRESENCE
Begin by being aware of God’s presence. You may want to read the following scriptures out loud, in a slow and steady pace, to remind yourselves who God is and whose presence you are seeking. Jesus said: ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28). The Message version: says ‘Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.’ Then read 1 Peter 5:7: ‘Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.’
THANKSGIVING
When you feel that it’s time to move on, encourage the group to enter a time of thanksgiving. Perhaps they would like to use a pen and paper to list the things they are grateful for in word or image, or they may want to stay in stillness. Ask the young people to think back over the last 24 hours, and to find the things that they are grateful for; from the small and mundane, to the large and profound. You may want to gently remind the group after a minute or so to focus on giving thanks to God in this time, as it is easy to slip into other thoughts once the mind is set free to look back.
Ask the young people to think about the good moments of rest that have happened and to give thanks for these. Now, move on to review. Again, it may be helpful for many to use pen and paper here. Say something like this, making sure to leave plenty of space between questions:
I invite you to review the last day or so. Have you been busy? Which tasks have you completed? Have there been moments of stress or anxiety? If so, what were they about? Have there been moments of boredom? Did you experience any apathy or lack of engagement with your surroundings? When did you find yourself walking in God’s unforced rhythms of grace? When were you cooperating with him? Were there times where you can see that God was acting in your life? When did you resist God’s action or calling in your life? Can you see any habits or patterns over this time? Are these patterns from God or are they unhelpful? How much of your work time was pleasing and productive? How much of your rest time was relaxing and recovering, rather than boring and apathetic? Allow God to help you notice details of your day that passed you by at the time. Invite the Holy Spirit to point things out and prompt you.
RESPONSE
After some time (try to not rush it) invite the group to turn their minds to response. There will have been things brought up by the review which demand a response. Some people may need to confess sinful behaviour – actions, attitudes and habits – to God, and to receive forgiveness and wholeness. Many of the observations made during the review may call for prayer – for situations, people and relationships, or a return to thanksgiving.
After this moment of self-led response, ask the group to reflect on the following questions:
• How do I want to change the way I work and rest tomorrow?
• Which work / rest patterns in my life do I want to keep?
When you feel that each member of the group has had enough time to reflect, finish with a prayer of blessing over the group. If you deem it appropriate for your group, you may want to encourage some sharing in small groups at this point. Some may want to share everything they experienced, but the most helpful thing to share would likely be the response time. Are there intentions that the young people would like their friends to keep them accountable to? Ensure that each person gets a chance to share as much or as little as they want to.
MEDITATION
Next, explain that you are going to lead one more prayer exercise on the theme of rest. Ensure that each member of the group has a space to sit comfortably or lie down somewhere where they are not touching anyone else. When everyone has settled down and are quiet, ask the young people to clench their fists as hard as they can. Lead the following meditation:
Explore the tension in your hands, what does it feel like? Does the tension travel anywhere else in your body? What does the tension make you think and feel? Now think about the things in your life that are causing stress and tension: people, circumstances, tasks, relationships, unhelpful feelings about yourself, pressures put on you by other people, pressures to succeed, pressures to be different to who you are - imagine that you’re carrying all these things in your hands.
Remember what we heard from Jesus earlier (read out loud again Matt 11:28 in NIV and The Message). Resting and letting go of tension is saying ‘yes’ to Jesus. It is trusting that if we let go he will pick things up. It is trusting that we don’t have to be perfect, but to allow him who is perfect to care for us. It is trusting that Jesus’ death on the cross makes us right, rather than the things we achieve. God’s call to us today is to stop striving, to not carry heavy burdens that wear us down. God’s invitation is to walk with him, in his unforced rhythms of grace.
As I invite you now to relax your hands, imagine every stressful thing that you placed in there leaving you, to be carried by Jesus, who cares for us. St Augustine said of God, ‘You have made us for yourself, and the heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.’ With your hands relaxed and opened before God, allow your heart to rest in him. Be aware that his rest is complete, free from guilt, boredom or apathy. ‘Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour, who daily bears our burdens’ (Psalm 68:17).
