Today is Maundy Thursday and I am thinking about needs. Jesus recognized needs in the crowds to whom He was ministering. He wanted to bless them in their feeling overburdened by the demands of the Pharisees and by the circumstances of life.
He said, "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." The Lord offers rest.
It is funny then how we contemporaries are not all that interested in rest. We are suspicious that rest is superfluous and for lazy people. We may even recognize our need for rest but choose to put it off until the kids are grown, the mortgage is paid, the grandkids are grown, or the wheels fall off of our car. We may forgo rest because we do not want to be labeled as lazy.
After the Lord made the world, He rested. Kind of an absurd notion, isn't it? God, who spoke the whole universe into being, needed to rest. Does that mean that He needed to replenish expended energy? Probably not. It is more likely that He just needed to stop and reflect and enjoy what He had done.
Maybe this is part of the Lord's desire for us as well - that we would stop long enough to notice what He has done and to just be in His presence. In this we will be rejuvenated body, mind, and soul. Our needs will be met - needs we were not even aware we had! The Lord desires this; it is why He commanded that Sabbath be established.
And yet it is not easy to pull off. We have work to do after all. We have children to care for. We have books to read and vacations to take and yards to landscape. We have ministry to do. We have films to watch and concerts to enjoy and TV to dig and ballgames to attend. Is there really time to rest? Is it reasonable? Won't we miss out on something?
Rest in Jesus' arms is what we need. How do we discipline ourselves to receive it?
5 comments:
Joyce,
Being uncomfortable with silence around God very well may be indicative of a relationship not quite as cozy as one might hope. It is ironic, then, that we end up avoiding exactly that which would allow us to deepen that relationship.
Your observation about our cultural lust for noise is thought-provoking. What purpose for good or evil does the noise serve? What communication do we block? What thoughts are thwarted? What revelations do we miss?
Our ears and brain need rest from stimuli, too.
Jeff
I think people seek out noise sometimes because in the quiet you are left with yourself. Many people are not comfortable or do not like the self they see in the silence, so it's best to avoid that. Also found in the silence are all the regrets and hurts of the past. Again, that can be hard stuff to deal with. If we are silent, we may have to deal with aspects of ourselves we'd rather ignore.
But let's say that you like the person you find in the silence and your past regrets and hurts are not too great. There's still the "threat" that God will ask something of you if you are quiet for too long. That in and of itself is enough to keep people moving and noisy. I know this one has been a barrier for me in the past. What if God asks something of me that's really hard? What if I don't like it? What if I have to give up something I love? It seems worse to tell God "no" than to just not listen in the first place.
But great things can come from the silence...greater understanding of self and others, growth in faith, and the awareness that God actually just wants to sit with me. That last one is so awesome, I still have trouble wrapping my head around it.
We all run from silence at one point or another, but when we do, we miss the chance to commune with God on a much deeper level.
Jeff,
Thanks for your blogs.
Rest in God. Does finding rest in God mean having to be silent? I believe we need to revel in God's presence through the quietness of silence. Yet,can we find rest in God in playing with our children? In listening to worshipful music? In our work?
"For my yoke is easy [pleasant, not harsh] and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:30). I wonder if the rest that Christ offers in this text is not a rest from work, noise or play, but a rest IN these things.
Just my wonderings,
Chris Schoenhals
Sarah,
I agree that there is threat in silence - that we will hear something that we don't want to hear. On the other hand, sometimes we need to be open to hearing the hard word that the Lord or someone else has for us. How else will we grow?
Silence is sometimes just allowing God or another person to speak to us without offering a defense or any sort of rebuttal. It is living for even just a moment with a truth that may be hard for us to bear.
Jeff
Chris,
Your point about rest being found is very well taken.
It seems to me that rest is not just one thing or another. It is both stopping all activity and it is engaging in restful activity.
On Fridays during the summer I often mow my lawn. This is a day of rest for me but I find the lawn mowing to be therapeutic. I can think without distraction, exercise a bit, and enjoy God's creation all at once. It is truly restful.
I think the activity and noise is problematic when it is all we know and we never take a break from it.
Jeff
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