After a long stretch with no wi-fi and no cell phone reception (how we survived, we’ll never know), we basically have wi-fi for a day and then we’re moving on to a lengthy 126-mile stretch that most likely won’t have wi-fi, cell phone reception, or pretty much anything else besides beautiful nature and the road we’re walking on.

At this point, we don’t have one of my (Mike’s) overly-thorough updates about what’s been going on with us on our journey, but we should have something pulled together after our upcoming stretch. That said, we didn’t want to go another week without an update, so we thought we’d take things in a different direction.

You may not know this, but the Bible actually tells us that it’s important to rest. As in, take naps, get good sleep, take time off of work, and all of that other fun stuff that you usually feel guilty doing because you’re not “getting something done.”

During the latest part of our journey, Utah–and, from the sound of things, a decent portion of the entire western U.S.– got rained on. Brutally. Fortunately, we had our tent set up in time to avoid the rain (which wasn’t quite as bad in our area as it was in other areas). While we didn’t get blasted with rain like some places, it did rain off and on for 24 hours straight. As a result, we decided to just leave our tent up and rest for a day rather than walking in the rain.

Normally we might feel slightly guilty about that decision. but thankfully we pulled up a recent sermon from Dave Kaufman, the pastor at Holy Life Tabernacle in Brookings, South Dakota. Dave was the pastor for our wedding and he and his wife Jeanne have been close friend of Lindsie’s family for years. He’s also an incredible voice for the Lord.

As we were resting and feeling a little guilty for doing so, we listened to Dave’s sermon and, lo and behold, the entire message was talking about the importance of rest. We figured since it was so ideal for our situation, it would probably be ideal for other people’s lives too. As a result, we’re linking to it here (as in, click there to download it) or here if you’d rather pull it up in iTunes (in which case, we encourage you to subscribe to all of Dave’s sermons).

Some verses Dave refers to in the sermon to back up this point include Psalm 4:8 (“We can lay down in peace, for you, Lord, make me to dwell in safety”), Proverbs  3:24 (“When you lay down you shall not be afraid, you shall lie down, and your sleep shall be sweet”). God is essentially telling us to sleep well and take naps (although Proverbs 20:13 does say “Love not sleep,” so we do need to have balance). And in the context of the sermon, these verses make even more sense, so be sure to give it a listen.

We hope you enjoy Dave’s words of wisdom as much as we did, and we look forward to sharing more details of our journey with you guys soon!

-Mike and Lindsie