Imagine a world of joy, abundance, peace, and comfort – a world where all bodies “flourish like grass” and God extends motherly protection to all people through safe and welcoming communities. Today’s reading from the book of Isaiah, a prophetic text written in response to the Israelite exile in Babylon, calls forth lush images of a world where the people are liberated from captivity and restored to an abundant land, their mourning turned to joy.

As I reflect on this text in the current political moment, I feel both a deep longing to exist in such a world and a skepticism that such a world, which often feels like an idyllic utopia we could only ever hope for, is actually possible.

I am reminded of the writing of Tricia Hersey, author of Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto and We Will Rest!: The Art of Escape (Rest Is Resistance Book 2). Hersey – who describes herself as a performance artist, writer, theater maker, activist, theologian, and founder of The Nap Ministry – provides us with one possible framework through which we might begin to dream and work toward such a world.

Hersey’s work in Rest is Resistance draws from Black Liberation Theology, somatics, Womanism, Womanist Theology, Afrofuturism, her ancestors, as well as her lived experience as a Black woman who grew up in a working class family in which she witnessed family members both buy into and opt out of “grind culture.” From these sources and her own lived experience, Hersey writes that rest is essential for resistance because it challenges capitalism and white supremacy, systems built upon the extreme exploitation of Black bodies worked beyond exhaustion to maximize profit for the wealthy. We’ve inherited a world very different from the world of Isaiah 66:10-14, one in which rest is condemned (“I’ll sleep when I’m dead!”) and we’re misled to believe that abundance and peace only come through hard work.

Hersey writes that rest is powerful because it helps us to remember our nature as divine beings worthy of abundance exactly as we are and allows us to dream for a better world. Hersey calls this dreaming “DreamSpace,” a place where our minds can imagine what’s possible beyond the oppressive limitations of the way things are. “To rest in a DreamSpace,” she writes, “is a red brick through the glass window of capitalism” (Rest is Resistance, 97). To slow down, to tune into our bodies, to value rest, to nurture ourselves and one another, and to dream of new worlds is a form of protest.

Today, I invite you to practice this resting and dreaming work with me.

As you listen to the following meditation created by Tricia Hersey, in which you’ll hear her welcome you into your DreamSpace in her own voice, reflect on the invitation to enter into rest. Lay down, sit outside, or close your eyes at your desk. Allow yourself to surrender to being still, and begin the meditation. As you listen, you might find yourself imagining a world where people who are vulnerable to harm are welcomed into protective and nurturing communities. You might imagine a world without ICE; a world where Gaza is free; a world where no one is hungry; a world where farm workers take naps in fields; a world without prisons; a world where we celebrate transgender people as divine; a world without chronic pain; a world where you feel happy and whole.

If it is restful just to be present with your body as you listen to this meditation, or to tune into God’s peace and comfort, then please do so. This is your moment.

After your moment of rest, reflect for a minute upon your experience. You might jot down how you felt while resting, a phrase from the meditation that stood out to you, an idea for a rest practice that you want to try tomorrow, or how you want to bring rest to someone in your life who is tired. The work of rest is ongoing, and I hope you will return to its gifts again and again.

Together, may we rest and dream in ways that disrupt capitalism and allow us to create a world of comfort, safety, and care for all God’s people.