“Come to me, all who
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for
I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Now, if you have any kind of church
background or know someone who does you have probably heard this passage
before. It’s a popular verse of
encouragement for the times when people look to the Bible for a little boost to
the soul. Recently however, I was some-what
forced to consider the implications of this text due to some life
circumstances
Allow me to be transparent. Especially as the holiday season comes around
it’s a pretty universal fact that life tends to get hectic. The mental or literal to-do lists we construct
get longer as we stack Christmas preparations on top of our normal
obligations. There’s just something
about this time of year that seems to unleash a little bit of extra chaos into
society. You see it in the way people
drive, in the way they shop, just to highlight two of many possible examples. Now, a few weeks ago I had fallen prey to the
restless grip of this season, putting in extra work, taking away from time I
usually set-aside to rest, in order to get more things done. And when I did finally take time to rest it
usually involved being as close to a vegetative state as I could be watching
television or, when my mind allowed me to, taking a nap. The mistake that I had made was thinking that
that counted as real “rest”. Sure, the
vast majority of the world today would consider some time in front of the
silver screen and a little power nap to be quite restful. But that brings me to my point: it’s not the
kind of rest that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 11. Our typical kind of R&R, at best, can
push-back the wear-and-tear of daily life physically or mentally, but all the
while the soul is still growing weary.
For a few weeks I had justified why
I had not faithfully set time aside to rest.
I mean, the concept of “keeping the Sabbath” is probably one of the most
neglected concepts in Christian culture today.
Why? Because we live in a restless world. Saying New York City is “the city that never
sleeps” is seen as a positive attribute of the culture. The common jocular response to the notion of
rest is that we will rest when we’re dead, but right now
we have things to do. So we are typically
surprised when all of a sudden it seems like the engine of our lives breaks
down, and, for no apparent reason we can think of, we feel weary, depressed,
and overwhelmed - like we’re running on
fumes. That’s where I found myself one
night and I don’t think it’s too bold to say that many or all of you can relate
to that. Some call it a “break-down”, I’d like to call it the consequence of a
lack of proper rest.
And here’s the thing, a lot of times
we get in those situations, and we jump to prescribe ourselves with solutions. We think, “Well maybe I just have too much on my plate, so I just need to back out
of a bunch of things I was committed to.”
Although, that may be part of the problem, it doesn’t cure the
problem entirely. Or we think “Maybe I just need a little time off. A good
vacation will get me back on track.”
Again, that may be helpful in the right context but a vacation in and of
itself is not going to solve the problem.
As I’ve talked with people over the years I’ve seen a lot of folks come
back from vacations no better off or refreshed than when they left. At best the vacation allowed them to escape from
their weariness for a few days, but the burdensome realities of life were
patiently waiting on their doorstep when they came back.
“Okay,
then what is the problem?” you may ask.
It’s that we don’t know what it really means to rest. We often times think that resting is just NOT
doing the things that take a toll on us.
But, as Jesus alludes to in this passage, rest is more than an
abstinence of activity; in fact, it’s actually a call to active intimacy with
Christ. More than anything we have to
consider what the source of this rest for our souls is that Jesus promises.
It’s Himself. So, this proves that the
weariness of our souls is not actually determined by the external influences of
work, family obligations, volunteering etc.
Those things may make it more difficult to carve out time to rest and
distract us from the one thing that can actually refresh us. However, our sense of holistic rest is in
direct correlation with our communion with Christ.
As I
reflected on this I realized that my own life proves the integrity of this
theory. I have undergone seasons in life
where I have worked 70+ hour weeks between my day job and ministries, volunteered
on top of that and felt absolutely refreshed all the way through. Even when my physical body would tire, the
sense of being spiritually full in Christ eclipsed the exhaustion of my
flesh. And I have had weeks where I had
little or nothing to do yet felt drained and weary because “relaxation” cannot
replace the ultimate source of rest for every man’s soul…Jesus.
So,
I would encourage you, whether you are a believer or not, to consider not just
if you’re adequately resting, but if the way you’re resting is adequate. Christ expresses His empathetic understanding
of our burdensome existence in this world and He supplies the means to sustain
us joyfully in Him. Only He can give our
entire being the rest that it needs to avoid “breaking down”. It’s not more sleep, fewer responsibilities,
more time off, or a healthier lifestyle that will carry us through, unless
those things come alongside intentional and intimate communion with Christ
through prayer, time in His Word, and just being still in His presence. Although it seems that everything culturally
attacks this idea, it seems pretty clear that the world desperately needs to
reform the way that we rest. Our joy and sanity may very well depend on it.
