A while ago I wrote about rest. I wasn’t sure how it could be fitted in with the necessarily busy lives that many, particularly those with young families and/or elderly parents, lead. It seems foolish and impossible to suggest that people actually stop doing some necessary things in order to make space to rest. And then my mum became ill. She had, early in the New Year, felt that God was asking her to take a step back. But she genuinely didn’t know how, given her commitments

What does it mean for Jesus to give us rest? It is easy to spiritualise his words – that what he means is that we can carry on in our busy lives, and feel at peace within them. It almost seems wrong to suggest that it means anything else. Peace within the storm, not peace without a storm, and all that. God can’t possibly mean actual physical peace, can he? So he must mean spiritual peace; a spiritual overlay of calmness, serenity and tranquillity as the children throw Lego br