It is amazing what we will do to get a break. We will drive hundreds of miles to the mountains or ocean. We will find a sequestered retreat by a lake in the woods. We will buy a hammock, build a gazebo, take a long walk, take a nap, sit beside a warm fire with a good book or watch the clouds roll by. These are attempts to gain rest, to earn it, to provide for it, to occasion it.
The big problem is that the cessation of activity alone does little to make the pain, the problem, the brokenness go away. A nap doesn’t change any of that. It is still there when we wake up. We can engage in restful activity with no guarantee of rest. Think about that for a minute. I will say it again. We can engage in restful activity with no guarantee of rest. That is because real rest does not happen to us. Real, deep, sustaining, life changing, problem thwarting rest comes from God alone. Jesus said something revolutionary in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” He did not say, “Come to me and you will have rest.” He said that HE would GIVE us rest. I’ve checked it out in the original language. It actually says that he will cause us to rest or provide it or give it. Whatever the translation, it comes out that he will supply rest as an active response to our coming to him. He doesn’t require or promise a nap, walk or trip to the beach to watch the waves. Those are OUR activities to attempt to conjure rest. He simply says that rest is his to give and he will give it to anyone who comes to him.
That is an offer hard to refuse. There are many efforts to create environments of or conducive to rest. More often than not, they turn out to only delay or suspend the burden that will soon return once we are “back at it” again. Jesus gives a rest that includes sustaining peace, order, purpose, balance and cleansing- all restful characteristics. This kind of rest doesn’t go away when we leave the beach and head home or wake up from the nap. This kind of rest is pervasive.
Save the long drive, the expensive vacation, the hammock for a day when you need extra sleep or time away from work or a little silence from the cacophony of daily life. When it comes to real rest, giving the burden to Christ is the only way to get rest, keep it, allow it to fill us up and be satisfied in it. He gives what we cannot otherwise get, try as we may.