When I’m tired and overwhelmed, what I most crave is being comforted by someone who is both gentle and steady. The kind of person who makes you feel calm just by looking at you. This is what it’s like to read Rediscovering Rest, the new 30-day devotional, written by Hannah Chartier.
Rediscovering Rest is split into 30 daily readings, and each reading concludes with questions for practical application. It’s perfect if you’re feeling overwhelmed or short for time, because each reflection is both brief and potent. Each day, Hannah reflects on Scripture, Church documents, stories from her personal testimony, and the writings of saints like Pope Saint John Paul II or modern geniuses like Cardinal Sarah. The devotional is written in a heartwarming manner, but it avoids platitudes. If you’re feeling shaky, Hannah’s writing offers the steadiness of Gospel Truth.
Throughout Rediscovering Rest, Hannah draws from her own experiences of exhaustion and toddler-induced sleep deprivation. Hannah’s sometimes confessional reflections on what it is like to feel desperate for rest amid relentless circumstances (parenting toddlers!) give this devotional its unique perspective. I appreciated her meditations on how being vulnerable before God and humbly admitting our weaknesses is a pathway to being filled with “abundant life.” It gave me hope to read her personal accounts of deep tiredness being met by God’s divine intervention and healing providence.
Here’s one of my favorite excerpts (from Day 13), where Hannah describes how God provided for her, after a morning of despairing exhaustion:
“I walked out to the back of the orchard… asking myself why we had even come. Most of the fruit on the trees had gone bad, or the trees were bare. But then, right at the back of the orchard, were rows upon rows of untouched trees, drooping with beautiful, ripe cherries. I suddenly felt gleeful, my exhaustion forgotten… Sitting there, surrounded by an abundance of cherries, I was struck by the overwhelming goodness of God. He was showing me, in real time, what abundant life looked like.”
Rediscovering Rest also reminds the reader that we do not live in a merely natural world. Reality is supernatural. Our God is the King of the Universe, and even when it seems like our exhaustion is naturally insurmountable, God provides supernatural antidotes. He desires that you receive deep and consoling rest, no matter where you are. This is the resounding message of Rediscovering Rest. Tribulations and tiredness are an inescapable part of life, and this devotional will give you the vision you need to remain renewed even when your natural circumstances are troubling.
I pray that this devotional leads you to a greater sense of the “peace that surpasses all understanding,” just as it did for me. Shalom!
