I served in a church where a father came to me at the beginning of my tenure and said, “My children will not be at the Sunday night youth meeting. Sunday is our family day to come to morning worship and then spend the day together as a family. They will be at Wednesday night youth, but don’t expect them to be at youth on Sunday night.” I will admit this caught me off-guard because I was raised in churches where the expectation was for people to be in attendance for the events in the church. There was an expectation of “doing” that permeated all the announcement times and many applications of sermons. The overarching theme I heard wherever I went was, “Do more.”
This perspective permeates our church and our world today. In seeking to motivate our children to be the best or to encourage our work force to produce more products or go “over the top” with their service, we proclaim a message of “doing” and the “doing” often is the basis of the health of the relationship. We fear failure because we do not know how it will affect the relationship: Will they still love me? Will they turn me away? Will they withhold affection?
In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” The intimacy expressed in Jesus’ words are an invitation for us to leave behind the heavy burden of “doing” and find a beauty in our relationship with him where we can step out of the rat race mentality of life and experience deep and abiding life in Jesus. We can find rest.
Rest is the releasing of our need to work to earn love or acceptance and moving to a place so intimately connected to Christ that we no longer must strive or struggle.
E. Stanley Jones said, “I will no longer struggle and strive; I will surrender and trust.”
When we come to a place where we are no longer overworking to try to please God and realize the unconditional love of God is not based on my “doing”, we rest in our “being” with Jesus. Where are you working feverishly and striving to try to “please God” or “please someone” and you are tired? Where do you need to “come to Jesus” to find rest for your souls? Stop struggling and striving; surrender and trust.
Prayer: Lord, I confess my tendency to struggle and strive to “do more.” Forgive me when my “doing” interferes with my ability to experience intimacy with you. I want to live the life of rest and intimacy with you. Amen.