Each summer, with its break from school and its warm weather, provides us opportunities to slow down a bit and seek much-needed rest. For many of us, the season offers a somewhat slower pace of life, a brief respite from the more demanding responsibilities that fill the rest of the year. Whether through vacations at the beach or through so-called staycations at home, summer is a great time to seek the relaxation that our human hearts clearly long for.

As I grow older, however, I've become convinced that truly resting is not usually something that happens effortlessly, but is something that we must learn to do. When we find ourselves in rare moments with nothing to do, we have to figure out how to use that time in order to find rest. Should we turn on the television, scroll through our phones, do a household chore, run an errand, or work on some hobby? If we're away on vacation, should we relax in our room, go sightseeing, or visit a tourist attraction?

Those of us who are parents can see that this predicament starts at a young age. If nothing exciting is happening, kids quickly begin to complain, “I'm bored!” This is a frequent refrain at home during the summer months, whenever nothing is planned to fill the time. In every single moment, the human heart seems to demand something meaningful, something that is worth our time.

One temptation, of course, is to stuff every single moment with activity so that we never really find rest. When we're at home, perhaps we excessively fill all of our downtime with chores or work. Even our vacations are not free from this temptation: How many times have you gone on a trip that was so packed with things to do that you returned home more tired than you left? Many of us have joked at one point or another, “I need a vacation from my vacation!” A flurry of activity, whether at home or away, leaves us interiorly and exteriorly exhausted.

Another temptation, which is perhaps less obvious, is to mistake “vegging out” for true rest. In an age of constant entertainment, we've been conditioned to seek constant gratification from screens, and we tend to think that we will find relaxation by sitting in front of one. In moderation, of course, watching television or checking our social media may provide some mild sense of tranquility, but the overuse of technology quickly begins to leave us more restless than before. Like binging on food, binging on media content seems to leave us not satisfied, but interiorly nauseous.

Scripture promises the true rest for which each of us longs: Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves” (Matthew 11:28-29). One of the central Christian articles of faith is that God alone can satisfy our human hearts. As St. Augustine famously said, “you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (see CCC 30). The opening verses of Psalm 62, which I decided to memorize this summer, offer a similar message:

It is one thing, however, to know by faith that God can satisfy our hearts and to trust that we will one day have eternal rest with him in heaven, but it is quite another to actually seek our rest in God within the course of our daily lives. In the unplanned moments of our lives, do we have enough faith to trust that we will find more rest by turning to God and his will than by turning to our screens or to activities of our own choosing? When we are planning out our days and our weeks, do we make time to develop our relationship with God through prayer, spiritual reading, and the sacraments? 

Although communion with God is possible only by the free grace of Jesus Christ, we must nonetheless learn what Pope St. John Paul II called “the art of prayer.” When in the moments of our daily lives we find our hearts yearning for something that is worth our time, we must master the art of using our time to seek God and his will. Not only is this pursuit worth your time; it's the only thing that's worth your time.