Working Towards God's Rest (Summer 2024 Journal Entry)

Working Hard

Have you ever worked really hard for a long time without a break or a vacation?  There was a period when our kids were very young that we couldn't afford to go on a vacation for around 5 years.  It was a trying time, and I was overdue for a vacation, a rest.

At work right now I'm in the middle of a rather intense year.  There are a lot of eyes (senior management, c-suite executives, and customers) closely watching our project and we've been given very aggressive deadlines to meet whilst training new people on our platform.  Work happens almost 24/7 because our teams are in timezones around the world - I've got 6 different timezones with 18 hrs of difference just with the members of my team. Lots of extra hours, fervour, concentration, zest, positive tension and passion makes it difficult to disengage from work after I've left my desk.

I've been thinking about Moses and the Israelites coming out of Egypt.  They had been literally slaving away for 400 years without vacations.  God wanted to give them a rest in the Promised Land.  But when God led them away from their work and placed the offer of rest in front of them, they balked.  Rather stuck in a rut, they couldn't get past their fear, didn't believe in the offer or that God would help them obtain it, and consequently wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.    

Sometimes its difficult to get out of an old mindset:

- From unbelief to believing.  

- From doing to being.

- From the treadmill of 'slavery' and works (doing things to 'achieve' God's approval, to God's rest)

God's Offer of Rest

The writer of Hebrews makes it abundantly clear in chapters 3 and 4 that we've been offered that same rest as Moses and the children of Israel.  I believe that offer of rest is a multi-faceted promise:

• Rest in the here-and-now because of God's promises for us today that say things like 'Be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known to God, and the God of peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus'
• And rest in the here-after in heaven.

That offer still stands for us now! Listen to the beginning of Hebrews 4:

"For as long, then, as that promise of resting in him pulls us on to God’s goal for us, we need to be careful that we’re not disqualified. We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn’t do them a bit of good because they didn’t receive the promises with faith. If we believe, though, we’ll experience that state of resting. But not if we don’t have faith."

Joyce Meyer suggests that the rest of God is not a rest from work—it’s a rest in work. It’s partnering with God to do what He is calling me to do by His grace.  Listen to this (talking emphatically to myself): Trusting that since God's called you into this work, He'll align the people and events with the experience and training you've got to 'work together to accomplish His good purpose.'

An Analogy

The Bible often draws metaphors between God's followers and sheep.  Consider sheep: They don't really 'do' anything to provide value to the shepherd or owner.  They just eat, grow, grow wool, reproduce...  What they 'need to do' to be successful, is trust their shepherd.  If they can't do that, there's problems. They'll be anxious, go hunger or thirsty, and potentially get into trouble or wander off.  Trust and rest walk hand in hand.  You can't really be trusting if you're worried, anxious, or fearful.  All of those emotions make it difficult to rest.  

Sheep resting
Photo by Ambitious Studio* | Rick Barrett on Unsplash

Jesus asks and calls after us in Matthew 11, 'Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.'

Another Offer of Rest - Sept 2024 Update

This fall continues to be busy for me at work.  I've additionally been struggling with some incongruity between the responsibilities I've been given and my official position/title.  Several times 'what is fair?' has threatened to overwhelm my thoughts and I've been tempted to communicate something rash.  This issue came front and centre last Monday after mid-year employee 'Success Reviews.'  I needed to hear from God what to do, as I felt justified to push back hard.  I prayed that God would speak to me, and He did, quite directly given the situation and my meditations in this blog post, through a verse in Isaiah:

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
Isaiah 30:15

Follow-up Thoughts

In Genesis, Jacob (son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham) did things on his own.  He worked 14 years for his wives, grew his flock, moved rocks, etc.  He perhaps found it easy to trust in his own strength.  Then God performs an intervention in his life with wrestling match, and essentially forces Jacob into a period of rest by permanently throwing his leg out of joint.  After that, Jacob had to trust God for everything.  Its an interesting foreshadowing of what happens with the Israelites in Egypt...

A microscopic subset of the people who left Egypt actually entered into the promised land - Joshua and Caleb - out of everybody!  Is this a foreshadowing of the ratio of the remanent of the church?  That's a sobering thought!

A Real Escape - Journal Early 2020's

The Escape

The Horse and His Boy from C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia was one of my favourite books to read as a child.  With a book and my imagination I could lose my life and find a different one for a while.  What an escape!  I'd finish the book and feel sad and wistful.  Back to reality, schoolwork, chores and music practice at home.  I wanted a life like Shasta, the protagonist in The Horse and His Boy - non-stop adventure, travel, heroism, a girlfriend...

A couple years later I went to see Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back as a double feature.  I had never been to a movie theater before.  I was blown away.  As we drove the 90 minutes back home, the stars in the sky seemed to beckon me,  but I couldn't fly away.  A melancholy ache washed over me as I compared my life with Luke Skywalker... 

Over the years, more books and movies temporarily offered escape followed up by a subsequent rude awaking to real life.  Then came Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and SnapChat.  I could get an escape in minutes instead of hours.  Unfortunately, that escape almost always came with a comparison - my life versus the main character.  My life always seemed to come up short.

A Snapshot Vs. The Truth

Stories and tales are one thing.  True stories and biographies are next level.  Even then, I need to be careful what I absorb, and what I embrace as truth. Is what I see in a moment, a snapshot, a SnapChat, a YouTube video, a movie, a book, the whole truth about someone’s life or the way a life is lived? Can a 30 second video, or a 2 minute movie, a chapter in the Bible, or a book really speak to the entire existence of a life?  

I must realize that all of these mediums only show me snapshots  If I don't remember that, I can fall into a terrible trap.  Comparison is nasty. It turns out one of two ways, and they are both wrong - it’s either I’m better, or I don’t measure up.  More often than not, I don't measure up - whether its someone else's vacation, their car, their fish story, their job, or their adventure.  Its a recipe for depression.

Photo by Mason Kimbarovsky on Unsplash

Escape from 'The Escape'

Jesus offers me an escape from all of this.  He says:

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly."  Matthew 11:28-30

I need to put down my phone, my iPad, walk away from my computer desk, and seek first God's kingdom and His will.

When I start reading about the amazing things other people have done, or watching clips or movies of inspirational stories, my ambition gets fired up.  I think I need to DO something impactful!  The Apostle Paul reminds me to: "...make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands".  1 Thessalonians 4:11

A final reminder from the prophet Micah as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in The Message:

"It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour,
    be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
    take God seriously."   Micah 6:8

Peter - A Strong Statement and Grace (June 2023 Journal Entry)

A Strong Statement

I was reading a devotional this week and it mentioned Peter denying Christ with some other thoughts, and it got me thinking...

Both Matthew and Luke record Jesus saying "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." - a pretty hard-core, black and white statement that I'm sure Peter heard.  I certainly heard it in Sunday School and church growing up.  

Here's what struck me this week, after years of growing up with church teaching:

• Peter must've been present and heard Jesus say "..deny me before men, and I'll deny you before my Father..." at some point while he was a disciple.
• Most of the Gospels record Peter committing to following Jesus to death during the last supper, and Jesus responding with "Truly, I tell you, this very night you will deny me three times..."  Jesus knew Peter would deny him.  Jesus' words about 'deny me and I'll deny you before my Father' ring loudly in my ears!
• Peter denied Jesus 3 times, just as Jesus said he would. Peter wept bitterly after he realized what he'd done.
• Following Jesus' resurrection, Jesus forgave Peter and commissioned him for ministry and building/leading the church. 

Photo by Jackson David on Unsplash

Grace

So...  the behaviour of Jesus towards Peter when they met after the resurrection makes me think Jesus won't deny Peter before the Father in heaven.  'But, but, but....  Jesus said...'   My mind worked overtime trying to reconcile Jesus' strong statement with this behaviour.  

My conclusion?  I need a new, deeper understanding of God's grace.  A hymn and a verse quickly came to mind:

• Grace Greater Than All Our Sin
      Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
      Freely bestowed on all who believe!
      You that are longing to see His face,
      Will you this moment His grace receive?
          Refrain:
          Grace, grace, God’s grace,
          Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
          Grace, grace, God’s grace,
          Grace that is greater than all our sin!
  
  
• John 1:14
  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth