True Rest!

“Come unto me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke for it is light and easy to bear.”

Growing up on Anna Maria Island, I was a very active boy! Swimming, fishing, biking, climbing trees or playing ball were how I spent most summer days while the sun was up. Even during school days things weren’t much different. I was so busy doing what I wanted to do as a child that I hated to stop for anything. Yet, at some point during the day my mom would make me stop and rest for awhile. “Eat this, drink that, sit here for a moment and rest!” It was like she had put me in time out. I ate, drank, brushed my teeth, and went to the bathroom…whatever I had to do so that I could get back to what I wanted to do as soon as possible. Shortly after the sun went down, I would hear my mom’s or dad’s voice hollering for me to come home. Reluctantly, I stopped what I was doing and headed home where 9 hours of rest was forced upon me by mom or sheer exhaustion. Sleep was inevitable whether sitting in a chair or lying in my bed. Oh to be a child again and to have the energy and the time to pursue what I love every moment of every day!

In many ways I am still blessed to spend my days pursuing God’s will in my life and in the lives of others. “For it is God who is at work in me giving me the will and the power to do what pleases Him.” Each day as I submit myself to Him he causes my will to become His will and even empowers me to perform it for His pleasure, which just so happens to be mine too! God desires and offers this to all His children.

God does not call us to inactivity; He calls us to rest from our own labors which burden us. Does that mean I should quit my outside job for a cushy office or indoor job? No, because those who have those indoor jobs know they aren’t as cushy as they seem. Some may actually long for an outside job. Right now a job, any job, is a blessing.

For me, physical work is more relaxing than anything I do, except fishing of course. I haven’t fished in years but I am fixin’ to. I am more relaxed being active than I am sitting still. Am I weird? Well, I guess it depends on your definition of “rest.” 

The rest Jesus offers transcends all our choices for “rest”. The rest He gives us is an inner rest and peace for our spirit. This peace stems from the knowledge that all is well between us and our creator. We can’t create this rest from within ourselves.  The rest Jesus extends to us is the reality that we can’t save ourselves through any means or activity except through faith in the finished work of salvation that Jesus offers us. Nothing else will give us rest; not work, recreation, sleep, or activity, not suffering or pleasure. “Come unto Me and I will give you rest.”

Tom Ratliff