Rest

        The statement that life is relentless just may be THE understatement of all time. Jobs are our means to eat. Bills call our name. School beckons our attention. More bills call our name. Illness strikes us. Death grieves us. Traffic angers us. Relationships with people we like encourage us. Relationships with people we don’t like bring us down. Performance plagues us at every corner.

       I recently went through a pretty intense time of burden where I had very little peace for almost two weeks straight. I did not know where God was and what is even more frightening, I truly didn’t know if he cared about what I was going through. I was constantly reciting scriptures about God’s love and peace, yet for some reason, nothing I said helped. I tried so hard to enter into God’s rest that I literally ran myself into the ground.
     One morning I awoke and I told my wife that I was really stressing and that I could not for the life of me figure out why. She said a few things to me that morning and one really stuck. She told me to ask God to take away whatever it was. At the time I thought “Haven’t I already done that? Isn’t that what I have been doing all this time? Reciting scripture and trying my hardest to focus on Jesus?” But knowing a bit about my wife’s intelligence I decided to obey. I knelt to my knees and simply prayed for God to take away whatever it was. Over the next few days, God lifted my burden and I felt a thousand times lighter.
      A poll was taken of the most stressful jobs in the world and number five on the list was minister of worship. Number 10 was minister. While the results of the poll were not in the least bit surprising, they certainly made me think. How and why could this be? Those very people who are responsible for guiding and instructing others in the life giving freedom of God are among the most stressed out people in the world. All I could think as I read the article was that something was terribly wrong. What a message a poll like that sends to the world:

      "Burdened now? Come be a follower of Jesus, it’ll get worse. YAY FOR RELIGION! Looking for peace in your life? Whatever you do, don’t become a Christian! You won’t be able to handle it! You are better off running 23 miles a day and biking 12."

      Paul commanded the Colossian church to “let the peace of Christ rule” in their hearts since they were “called to peace” (Colossians 3:15). Jesus Christ came to give people peace. He came to give rest to the weary and to reveal the true, deep, unending and uncontrollable love of God; a love that sets people free from the troubles of this world; a love which offers a relationship that forever protects from a life lived alone; a love which invites people into a peace which is not momentary, but eternal.
      At one point in the book of John chapter 10 verse 9, Jesus said that he is THE door to pasture and that anyone who enters by Him will find rest. Psalm 23, perhaps one of the most famous chapters in the Bible, illustrates this perfectly. In it we are reminded that God leads His people to green pastures and still waters, not life killing burdens. Not meaning at all that burdens don’t exist but that, even in the midst of attacking enemies, God our Shepherd prepares a meal for us that we may rest and eat while He tends to he nasty stuff.
      It took me a few days but I finally realized what had been wrong in my life. I was not letting God lead me to peace. I was not letting him BE my peace. I was not trusting in His character and love and because of this, I was not resting. When Christ said “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” he was not only meaning His words for the audience of His time only. He was expressing who he IS at His core, both to the people he encountered as He walked the Earth some 2000 years ago, and to the people that He encounters as He walks the Earth today.
       Are you burdened? Jesus IS peace. He IS rest. It’s His love, the love of God that will set you free. But He must be trusted. He must be relied on. He must be utterly depended on. God didn’t walk through this world and carry the weight of sin and burden so that rest in our weary lives would be a figment of our imagination or a faint notion. He came that we may have life and have it to the fullest; a life without shame and guilt for our screw ups; a life of peace in the midst of storms. He came to give a message utterly and totally contrary to the one that the job poll above speaks. A message that says,

       "Burdened now? Come be a follower of Me. I will carry you. Looking for peace in your life? Whatever you do, don’t settle for anything less than the peace I want to give you! Trust me! It will be so great you won’t be able to handle it! My love is enough for this world. It will never fail you. I will never fail you."


Andy

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Identity

We long to be defined.

           

             For some it’s the latest clothing or fashion styles. For others, it’s being the first in line at your local coffee house. A select few find their identity in achievement and status (oh wait that’s everyone).  Perhaps straight A’s, perfect attendance to Chargers games (hey I live in San Diego now), climbing the ladder at work, or bowling is your thing.

            I remember growing up I was the movie man (and I do mean THE movie man). If you wanted to know something about movies, I had the answers. I collected movies, made movies, ate movies, drank movies. Ask anyone who knew me to describe me and one of the first things that would come to their minds (besides my ravenous good looks) was my knowledge and passion for film. I loved being “that guy.” I loved being the person who could point people the “right way” with movies (ask my wife and she will tell you that I am still like that). But something was certainly missing in me. I could never see enough movies or learn enough about film. There would always be one more to see. There was an unrelenting inner competition within me that wanted to outdo everyone else who thought they knew movies. This was my definition, and remained so until after several years of following Jesus.  

            It was a slow process, but God slowly began showing me that I was so much more than just “the movie man.”

            I was an object of God’s love.  

            Me. Not the just the perfect student behind me or football star to the left. But me. Andy-the kid who was teased on the playground in kindergarten and had his underwear thrown around the gym locker room in middle school. Me. The broken, insecure, thin shell of a man was and continues to be God’s beloved child.

            People are starved for significance. We all want meaning. We want identity; a definition for ourselves. The cross of Christ is not just a story about a nice man who was born, taught a little, and then died. It is about God Himself chasing after a creation that left Him. It is about redeeming something that was lost. It is all at once about how much God hates sin, but loves people. Jesus and his cross are instruments for forgiveness of the crap we have done, and an invitation to true identity as Children of God.

            True meaning IS being God’s child and living a life of total dependence on the Father, both for salvation and our daily existence. True identity is found in Jesus Christ. This is true whether we are pastors, teachers, musicians, astronauts, college students, youth workers, children abandoned by parents, girls with abusive pasts, drug addicts, recovering drug addicts, alcoholics, recovering alcoholics, mathematicians, recovering mathematician, basket-ball stars, or track practice dropouts.

            If you are searching for identity, don’t settle for anything less than meaning in Christ. If you have this meaning, don’t forget it or substitute it for a false thrill. He is worth too much for that. So are you.

Andy

 “How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called Children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1