"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." -- Matthew 11:28-29
I think we long for rest. So much of what we do that is ultimately destructive is because we are trying to numb out, veg out, just be and not do. The idea that we have to make an effort to enter into rest rather than just let it come upon us and over take us like sleep is rather disconcerting to us. And yet, that is what we are called to.
"There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. " --Hebrews 1:9-11
This all came together for me this week when I reread a devotional that is originally from "Won by One" by Ron Rand:
That's when it all started coming together for me. We want to be carried but we don't want to do the work of TRUSTING the one who carries us. We don't want to feel like turning when we don't need to turn. We just want to be part of him, to be one and not question, to know his ways and do them because we understand what He is doing.In 1857 a tightrope walker named Blondin stretched a two-inch cable across the gorge of the Niagara Falls, attracting a large crowd. He said to the onlookers, "How many of you believe that I can carry the weight of a man on my shoulders across this gorge?" The crowd shouted and cheered their belief that he could do it. Sure enough, Blondin picked up a sack of sand weighing about 180 pounds and carried it across the falls.
Then Blondin said, "How many of you believe that I can actually carry a person across the gorge?" Many people in the crowd indicated that they thought he could do it. Then Blondin called out, "Which one of you will climb on my shoulders and let me carry you across the falls?" Suddenly there was silence. Everyone wanted to see Blondin person across the gorge and many believed he could. But nobody wanted to put his life in Blondin's hands.
Some time later, Blondin did carry a man across Niagara Falls. The man was Blondin's manager, who had known the tightrope walker personally for many years. "You must not trust your own feelings, but mine," Blondin told his manager as they prepared for the crossing. "You will feel like turning when we don't need to turn. And if you trust your feelings, we will both fall. You must become part of me." (emphasis added)
But that is not the deal. We know he is 100% able to do what he is offering. We KNOW it. We've seen him do it in other's lives, maybe at times even in our own. (Just imagine how many people would have taken Blondin up on the offer to go across the tightrope if there were a hungry lion prowling around.) No the deal is to trust him and move with him when we don't understand what He is doing or why. We put our trust in His ability and who He is not in our understanding of what He is doing. This has given fresh perspective for me to the well known verse:
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." -- Proverbs 3:5-6
I am now starting to look at challenges in my life to do what I know I should...but resist because well, frankly, I just don't want to (eat right, exercise, consider other's needs ahead of my own, walk in the light)...from the perspective of is this me wanting to turn when we don't need to? Am I resting in His ability, acknowledging Him and allowing Him to make the way for us? His peace comes when we understand that we don't need to understand WHAT, we just need to understand WHO and that comes from coming to Him, fellowshipping with Him, knowing Him, becoming part of Him.
