I'm on vacation this week but I've entered into it somewhat tired. Several weeks of regular business travel coupled with a hectic schedule has left me weary and this week at beach has come at the right time . I desperately need to be refreshed - physically, emotionally, spiritually. I'm not sure if this is your experience but my state of weariness is usually accompanied with a loss of perspective, a tiredness of the soul as well as physical strain.
Vacations are fine for sleeping in, enjoying family time and healthy recreation but it's only part of the solution. What I need is the kind of rest that restores both my body and my soul. I need to respond to my Savior's kind invitation to come to him.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
(Matthew 11:28-30)
This particular invitation from Jesus is only for those who are weary - the strong, sufficient and carefree need not apply. It's a promise for those who are burdened - by the anxiety of unfinished to-do lists, the nagging guilt of unmet goals and responsibilities greater than they can bear. Please don't get me wrong, I love vacations. Times of recreation and opportunities for leisure are great. But the rest we need is found in a Person - Jesus Christ is the true Sabbath. That's what I'm meditating on, even as I enjoy the sand and surf this week.
What causes your weariness?
How do you get rest when you become tired?
How do the cares and burdens of this world affect you?
7 comments:
Wonderful post, ESI! Wonderful words, of course oh so true!
I'm on the edge in certain ways nearly all the time- part of my makeup, not to deny the faith at all, but in ways that can really end up undermining my faith.
But maybe God lets me be there so that I find my rest only in him! (cf.: Psalm 62, thereabouts).
But I'm on vacation as well this week, and it's been quite refreshing, and as you have seem at my posts, a time of slowing down before God.
To get into that yoke with Jesus and remain there, that's the challenge. We can do that somehow, by the Spirit, and good when we can be in that kind of work together, with others of God's people.
I'm refreshed just as a byproduct of trying to rest in God. So glad there are seasons when the Lord leads us beside quiet waters, and refreshes and restores our souls! (Psalm 23).
Good to get away from our work, too- in keeping I think, with a sabbath rhythm which I wish was built more into our own workaday worlds!
I wouldn't mind a siesta, early afternoons at work. It seems too often all about getting more and more done (not so much at my work- though I do call the new machine, Raptor- after that scary dinasour in Jurassic Park- one)- it makes that little noise and ready or not, these perfect booklets are flying at you!
It might really be this dinasour, Velocirpator, I'm referring to.
ha. forgive me for all of that.
Going away helps.
And I try to go away at least once a day by sitting on my porch or out under the pine, with a cup of tea, face turned toward the sun.
Ted,
Have a refreshing and restful time.
LL,
Going away every day. I like the idea of daily escaping from the hurried pace of life's activity without waiting for vacations, long weekends, retreats.
Yes ESI, I absolutely identify. I actually realized while trying to pray about something the last two days that I have lost perspective on what it is I'm to be about at work as well as at home and I'm not sure who to go to talk about it with - so that makes me think it is more a tiredness of soul than a tiredness of work. I feel as though I could sit for several days at my house with my bible and be quite content -
That is one of my favorite verses in the Bible - "Come to me" - what beautful and desirable words to hear.
Susan
Thanks for sharing your struggle which is common to us all and quite frequently too. Yet, God is so kind to draw us to Himself and even the challenges and weariness can be reminders to us of our constant need of Him
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