Come and Rest

I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.  That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil – this is the gift of God.   Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

Solomon, with all his wisdom, wealth, and power, made this determination:   That the gift of God is learning to be content.   Contentment comes when we recognize the beauty of the everyday … something I like to call “living lives where the sacred and secular collide.”   Ann Voskamp shares how she found eucharisteo in numbering the graces and beauty in the mundane.   My friend Sandra is learning to see glimpses of grace in a role she hadn’t expected – special needs mom.    Others are finding contentment – and the deep soul rest that comes with it – through telling their stories of infertility and trusting God with their dreams.

We’ve spent several weeks looking at biblical rest and personally I’ve found this time challenging and encouraging.  I hope you have too.    The simple truth, though, is that all we’ve discovered, all we’ve learned, all that has been convicting and challenging, it’s all meaningless if we don’t do anything with it.

Jesus said He’d come so we could have “life abundantly” {John 10:10} and He promised us rest when we come to Him weary and heavy-laden {Matthew 11:28}.    Far too often we try to create restful experiences and fail to simply “come.”

Wandering into His presence in the midst of laundry or car lines, soccer practices and nap time … these are the opportunities for rest.  Opportunities we must seek out and embrace.   I love what Mark Buchanan says in The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath:

This is the gift of God:  to experience the sacred amidst the commonplace – to taste heaven in our daily bread, a new heaven and new earth in a mouthful of wine, joy in the ache of our muscles or the sweat of our brows. {37}

“To experience the sacred amidst the commonplace” … isn’t that the beauty of true biblical rest?   We’re allowed, invited even, into the sacred place of resting in Him at any time.

Is Christ calling to you, “Come and rest”?   What holds you from responding to His  call?

Tomorrow, we’ll finish up this series with some practical ideas and suggestions for incorporating rest into your routine.   If you missed any of the previous posts, please check out the “Slow:  Understanding Biblical Rest” index.