“Let It Rest” (08/11/2026)

It was my fault. I told my husband that I’d put a batch of banana bread in the oven. And he started circling and asking that age old question, “When is it done?” When my timer went off, I took the pan full of aromatic banana bread out of the oven. Knowing that my husband could hear a pan rattle from three rooms away and that he’d be all over that baked goody like white on rice, I warned him, “Let it rest!”

My husband didn’t understand the “Let it rest” principle when we first got married. He pretty much believed that when it left the pan or oven it was done and fair game for the first to arrive on scene. Over the years, he has learned the principle and trained himself to hold off because it’s better if it rests. Patience has its rewards. And he was rewarded shortly after that.

“Let it rest” is a principle that has applications beyond the art of cooking; it has benefits in our spiritual journey as well, if we learn to practice it wisely. Just as foods absorb and harmonize seasoning when we allow them to rest, there are times when setting things like hurt or anger down and allowing them to rest for a bit can help us to see ingredients in the experience we’d missed earlier as well as remember the “seasoning” Christ taught us to bring to every moment, love. Sometimes, simply taking the time to let things “rest” for a bit prevent us from being reactionary and allow us to be intentional – to choose the loving, merciful, forgiving response.  Sometimes, when we allow moments of our lives to “rest” we recognize the LORD’s presence in a moment or we hear the LORD’s call to act a particular way.

As we continue our spiritual journeys this side of heaven, let us be willing to “let it rest” and use the lull to implore our LORD for direction and for grace. Let us acknowledge that some things in life demand that we step back for a bit and allow the Spirit to help us season our responses with loving kindness and mercy.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.