Review – Sacred Rest by Saundra Dalton-Smith

Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity addresses a need many if not most of us have in our too busy and overwhelmed lives — rest.

Rest.

Do we even know what that means anymore?  Most people think of rest as sleep or deep sleep, but rest, the author explains, includes far more of the waking hours than we realize. Dalton-Smith deals well with the need and the evaluation (a simple test -the Personal Rest Deficit Assessment Tool -included in the book) which encourages readers to evaluate physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, sensory, and creative rest.

As a physician Dalton-Smith shares case studies of deficiency in the various forms of rest and the consequences of each. Although her medical background and personal experience make this book a helpful tool to encourage and motivate the readers to examine causes of unrest and to implement new rest-inducing practices, I found the spiritual side of the book extremely lacking to the point of detrimental.  I need to note that because of I rate differently these two areas of the book this is not a usual 3 star review.  I ended up averaging this review with 4 stars for the physical information and downgraded to a 3 when I subtract the (1) score I would give for the spiritual side.  Rather than leading her readers to find rest in Christ, I found a greater propensity and emphasis on self-centeredness.  That off-Christ focus and theological errors (i.e. follow Christ (“a 2,000 year old Messiah”) till he leads you to God etc)  made this book more of a secular work than a “Christian Living” book and consequently I cannot recommend the book as a Christian life resource.

If you can ignore the pseudo-spiritual side of the book, I believe you could still take away a better understanding of the varied aspects and needs of rest in our body and our day-to-day lives. But, if you, or the person to whom you would gift this book, is not solidly grounded in theology, it could be confusing and even compound the need for correction and readjustment to achieve a scripturally balanced view of the true source and methods of change needed in our lives for real rest.

In conclusion, if I found the book with only the medical and physical details I could probably recommend it as a resource about the need for rest, but as is, I find the solutions (looking to self, depending on feelings, and a somewhat secular view of God) unlikely to lead to a solid spiritual renewal.

I received a free copy of this book/Ebook/Product to review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations. I am part of The CWA Review Crew.