So, as I was saying . . . we don’t rest. It cuts against the grain of our culture. To many people, to slow down is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Even though our intentions to slow down are good, and our deep desire may be to get out of the fast lane, we typically don’t. Our constant going is a lot like what I experienced with my son a few years ago.
We were inside the house, and I was doing something. Not sure what . . .probably resting (writer’s embellishment). And in front of me I noticed my youngest son, in the living room, running in circles. That was it. Just running in circles. He wasn’t making airplane noises, or tornado-like noises. He was just running in circles, and not slowly either. So after about a minute of watching him, I asked him, “Kam, what are you doing?” His response, “I’m running in circles.”
You think?
“So, buddy, do you need to go to the bathroom?”
“Nope.”
“O.k., so why are you running in circles?”
“I don’t know.”
We run way too many circles in this life, and we don’t really know why. To be still is not an option, so we run . . . in circles. And we never go anywhere except to a place called “exhaustion,” “burnout,” “weariness.”
But we have excuses. ”I don’t have time to slow down.” ”If I slow down, I’ll get behind.” ”I don’t want to be lazy.” ”I’ve got too much to do.” Even in our “leisure time,” we don’t rest. Maybe you’re like me when it comes to vacations. After them, I need one. In our “leisure time” we run ourselves so ragged that it becomes exhausting. And we go back to work, or school, and we find ourselves empty, depleted, tired and in need of rest. Mark Buchanan puts it very succinctly in his book The Rest of God, “Leisure is what Sabbath becomes when we no longer know how to sanctify time. Leisure is Sabbath bereft of the sacred.”
Sacred? Rest is supposed to be sacred? As I have recently learned, absolutely. To Sabbath rest is of God. God is sacred. So, there you go. But how do we get there?
Good question. And the answer is found right in Scripture from the very lips of the One who is called Lord, Ruler, Expert, the Guy who knows what it’s all about, of the Sabbath.
“‘Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.’ At that time, Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.’ He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? . . . I tell you, something greater than the temple is here . . .For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’”
Lengthy text I know, but within that text is where the answer is found. Sabbath rest is simply entering into the presence of God and feasting on His presence. Just as the disciples were hungry, and David’s men were hungry and exhausted after fleeing from Saul, we, too, find ourselves soul-hungry, depleted, exhausted, and in need of rest.
We find it in daily meeting with God, entering into His presence, to taste the sweet intimacy of Christ. It’s in those moments that we find a respite from the weariness of life. And it should stir within us a longing for Sabbath; an extended period of “furious rest,” as Louie Giglio would say, and feasting on Christ.
Much more to come. In the meantime . . . enter and feast.