Seasons of Rest (May 3, 2020)

Have you found rest?

It is hard to believe, but at the time of this letter we have been unable to gather as a church for 6 weeks.  6 weeks!  Sunday will be the seventh.  Our last time of worship together in a church building was in March…the 15th to be exact.  Right now, as I type, we are on the brink of May.  Who could have predicted that this would be the case?  How is it even possible?  WHEN WILL IT EVER END?  Those are great questions, and I wish that I could tell you the answer to them (especially the last one), but let me ask another, more important question for you to consider…have you found rest?

I know.  I know.  Some of us are tired of “resting”, tired of being cooped up inside, limited in what we can do, where we can go, who we can see.  We don’t want to talk about resting anymore.  Let’s get on with life!  I understand, and I have those thoughts and feelings too.  I’m getting antsy and done with the whole situation.  I feel ready to move onto the next step.  I’m ready to get back together with people.  I’m ready to have church on Sunday mornings, to give out hugs and handshakes, to worship Jesus together.  I’m ready to go to Red Robin after church, sit at a table and eat bottomless sweet potato fries (they make a good sweet potato fry).  I’m ready for normal life to return!  It’s been long enough!  Surely, we can be done now! 

But, have I found rest?

Rest.  It can be underrated and often ignored.  I know that I can be guilty of this fact in my own life.  I get busy, the chores pile up, the list of responsibilities and tasks gets long, the “have tos” and “want tos” start to become overwhelming, caffeine intake increases, sleep decreases, “rest” becomes less of a priority.  But, is this really how I should live, and what price am I paying?

Throughout the Bible, rest is a topic that comes up often.  If you read through Scripture, apparently “rest” is important to God.  Right away in the book of Genesis, in the story of God creating the world, what do we see?  God creating, God working, God doing marvelous things, but not only that, we see God resting.  Look at what Genesis 2:2 says:

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 

Now, let’s be clear.  God is God.  God wasn’t tired.  God wasn’t worn out.  God wasn’t exhausted to the point that he just collapsed on the coach and needed a power nap because he just couldn’t do any more.  God could have done whatever God wanted to do on that seventh day.  God chose rest.  God didn’t need rest.  God chose rest.  And God chooses rest for us as well.  Genesis 2:3 reads:

Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

God made the seventh day holy, a day set apart, a “sabbath,” a day for worship, a day for rest.  Not only did God mandate a seventh day of rest for humankind every week, he also had a plan in place that the creation would rest every seven years as well. 

When instructing the Israelites on how to plant and harvest their fields, listen to what the Lord says.

‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord.  For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops.  But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.  Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.’  ~ Leviticus 25:1-5

For the people who were called out of Egypt to follow God, even the fields were to have rest.  The land was to be given a time to rest and rejuvenate.  Six years of planting, six years of pruning, six years of gathering crops, and then one year of resting.  This was to be the pattern.  This was to be the routine.  Work followed by rest.  Effort accompanied by trust.  Labor and a task to accomplish followed by a break, a time of worship, a time of rest.  It turns out that rest is important.  

So, I ask again, have you found rest?

I have to admit that even in this unique time of shutdown and isolation, rest has not just come to me easily.  It’s easy for me to work straight through all seven days and accompany that with distraction and sleep but not necessarily rest.  It’s easy to put in the six years of planting and continue to plow right through the seventh.  The hard part is to take the time off and truly rest, to trust, to put the day into the Lord’s hands and say “This day is yours.  Let me worship you today.  Let me find my rest in you this day.  I know that you will provide.”  I wonder how often, even in my down time, that I’m actually resting in the Lord, trusting in God, allowing for my faith to grow and God to provide.  Instead, am I just sitting while my mind is still worrying, while my fears are building, while I am fretting that if I don’t get up off of the couch soon nothing will be done?

Even in this time of mandated rest, of stay-at-home and don’t come out orders, I still have to make a decision to rest in the way that God wants me to rest.  

In my house, there is plenty to keep me busy for years.  The project list is long.  The unfinished “someday” ideas are never ending.  The work hasn’t stopped just because of the coronavirus.  I am blessed and thankful that I still have work/job responsibilities in pastoring these churches.  There are calls to be made, devotionals to complete, pastoral online meetings to attend, paperwork to be done, videos to record.  In addition, I still had classwork to do, papers to write, conversations to be had (praise the Lord that I’m done until the fall!).  Then, there are normal household responsibilities.  Plus, we’re remodeling/finishing some rooms that have never been completed.  So, I’ve done a little wiring, some minor plumbing, tore down a wall, hung drywall, mud & taped and am working on sanding the drywall.  I still need to finish the drywall, paint, get ductwork installed, clear out the rest of the room, lay flooring, trim, baseboards…you get the idea.  That’s just one room!  There are doors in our house that need hung and painted, a garage that needs cleaned out (my fault), an office that is a dump (my fault), a shed that is over full (my fault).  The list could continue for a long, long time.  And yet…I know that even in the midst of all of this I need rest.

Modern research tells us that rest is important (go figure…God has been telling us this since the beginning).  According to the Cleveland Clinic, lack of rest can result in “high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure or stroke…”  And that is just a short list of some of the issues.  Even in creation, there are studies that say that lack of rest can have negative consequences for fields as well (lower amounts of nutrients in the soil, smaller production numbers, etc.).  

Rest is important, and failure to rest has consequences.  The body breaks down.  The mind frazzles.  Relationships falter.  Things wear out.  But rest isn’t just isolated to a temporary pause from busyness or a quick break from working a job or household chores.  Rest is important in other areas as well.  Rest from worries.  Rest from fears.  Rest from anxiety and stress.

So, I ask again, have you found rest?  

True rest?  Have you found rest from your worries?  Have you found rest from your fears?  Have you found rest from your anxieties and concerns?  Have you found rest for your soul?

Jesus tells us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)  This doesn’t mean that we will be work free, that our jobs will cease, that our chores will be magically completed, that we won’t have responsibilities and that we can become lazy bumps on a log.  It doesn’t mean that life will magically go how we want or that all of our problems will be resolved in the way that we want them to be resolved.  Instead, Jesus offers us rest that extends beyond just physical rest, a rest that extends beyond our circumstances, a rest for our souls.  Jesus offers us a quietness of mind, of heart, a rest and a sense of trust that God is holy and that no matter what happens in our lives we can rest knowing that we are loved by our Savior, that we are in the palm of God’s hand, that God will provide for us.

Friends, we need rest.  We need rest each evening when our heads hit the pillow.  We need rest each week as we take a sabbath, to worship God and to take a break from our work.  We need routines of rest in our lives when we allow ourselves to have periods of lower productivity and activity.  We need rest, now.  

For many of us, the current situation has provided us with a unique opportunity to rest.  Some of the distractions have been removed.  Some of the busyness has ceased.  Life has slowed down for a little bit.  For others, the craziness of life has only been amplified.  Health care workers, grocery store employees, people who are continuing to put in long and difficult hours as life has sped up in this pandemic.  No matter where we find ourselves in that spectrum, we need rest, and we need it now.  More specifically, we need to find rest in Jesus.  We need to spend holy time with Jesus for him to speak life into our souls, for him to remind us that we won’t be separated from his love, for him to console us and give us peace, for him to sustain us and fulfill us in ways that our endless striving never will.    

Friend, have you found rest?

I hope that you have, that you can answer “yes” to that question.  Regardless, I encourage you this week to have a sabbath.  Take time, set it apart as holy unto the Lord.  Rest by yourself or with your family, worship God, read the Bible, pray, ask Jesus to give you rest.  After all, it is amazing what can be accomplished in six days when you rest on the seventh.  Don’t believe me?  Let me tell you a story about God and God’s creation…

~ Pastor Chris