Cooking the perfect steak involves a few key elements: Quality meat, good seasoning, the right amount of fat, stable heat and perfect timing. It also needs to rest for a few minutes, and believe it or not, resting the steak is the most-important step. Anthony Bourdain once said that the best way to screw up a perfect steak is to mess with it before it rests: Don’t touch it, don’t cut it, don’t poke it, don’t prod it, don’t do anything except let it sit there, and I can tell you from experience that this is true.
I had no idea how much I was short-changing my taste buds because I didn’t follow this basic, tried-and-true advice.
I’ll never forget my joy when I finally let my steak rest properly for the first time: The juices were evenly distributed throughout, the meat transitioned from deep-pink in the center to pinkish-grey out to the edge, beneath a magnificent crust, and it was so tender I could have used a butter knife to cut through it.
It was pure heaven. I can’t believe that I missed out on enjoying a steak’s full-potential, for a lot of years, simply by being impatient.
Making that perfect steak also caused me to see how we should let our souls rest after being seasoned, tenderized, seared and scorched too.
We all know that growing as children of God, and as human beings, involves a little bit of salt, fire and discomfort every now and then. We also have a tendency to be very active, or reactive, to these challenges when they occur, and rightfully-so. We are called to resist, fight, strive, battle, and struggle.
We also approach a lot of good things in life, such as pursuing dreams and achieving goals with the same kind of ferocity, tenacity and drive too.
Yet, battling with the realities of life, and the human condition, isn’t intended to be a 24/7 perpetual struggle. We need to let our spirits rest from time-to-time too.
Jesus promises us that his yoke is easy and burden light, but sometimes we complicate the simple by getting caught up in the struggle. Left unchecked, we can lose perspective and balance that leads to a laundry-list of potential problems.
Just like we rob ourselves of a delicious steak by not letting it rest before we eat it, we rob ourselves of peace, stability, growth and wholeness when we don’t rest too.
Rest isn’t a sign of weakness or of giving up either.
It’s part of the process of being cured, strengthened and perfected. It’s certainly something that almost every hero in the bible, and in our faith, accepted in order to fully-live out their lives.
Rest is so important that it’s built into the fabric of creation. All life, and almost every form of activity on earth, involves periods of activity and turbulence followed by rest. We can see this in almost everything. Concrete needs to cure and strengthen so it won’t crumble. Paint has to dry. Dough needs to rise, beer needs to ferment. Wounds need to be left alone to heal after they’re cleaned and treated.
Rest is a key component of growth, healing, renewal, strength and stability. All the energy and activity involved in producing whatever it is we’re working on is perfected and settled through appropriate rest.
Don’t go through the trouble of cooking the perfect steak only to screw it up at the end. Waiting those extra few minutes is time well spent. Similarly, don’t undermine all the good that’s being done in your life by avoiding spiritual rest either. Doing so will rob you, and others, of the joy of living the full, balanced and abundant life that you are created to live.