For what does a man get with all his work and all his
efforts that he labors with under the sun? For all his days are filled with
grief, and his occupation is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest.
This too is futile. (Ecclesiastes 2:22-23)
"Come ...
all who are weary and heavy-laden,” Matthew 11:28a
Jesus’ call is to a specific group of people who are aware
of their weariness. What signals does
your body send to you, telling you it’s time to slow down and rest? How well do you listen? Do you know the signs of fatigue and do you
heed them? We need rest just as we need
air, water and food to survive. The fact is when we fail to rest fully and
deeply, we not only hurt ourselves, we run the risk of hurting others.
In
The Twenty Four Hour Society, Martin Moore-Ede says: Our
most notorious industrial accidents in recent years—Exxon Valdez, Three Mile
Island, Chernobyl, the fatal navigational error of Korean Air Lines 007—all
occurred in the middle of the night. When the USS Vincennes shot down an
Iranian A300 airbus killing all 290 people aboard, fatigue-stressed operators
in the high-tech Combat Information Center on the carrier misinterpreted radar
data and repeatedly told their captain the jet was descending as if to attack
when in fact the airliner remained on a normal flight path. In the Challenger
space shuttle disaster, key NASA officials made the ill-fated decision to go
ahead with the launch after working twenty hours straight and getting only two
to three hours of sleep the night before. Their error in judgment cost the
lives of seven astronauts and nearly killed the U.S. space program. We ignore
our need for rest and renewal at the peril of others and ourselves.
Life makes us tired.
The demands from family, friends, work, church, and even ourselves keep
us constantly in “catch-up” mode. We are
often just like the basset hound named Tattoo in the following story.
Some time ago, a newspaper in Tacoma,
Washington, carried the story of Tattoo, the basset hound. Tattoo didn’t intend to go for an evening
run, but when his owner shut his leash in the car door and took off with Tattoo
still outside the vehicle, he had no choice.
A motorcycle officer named Terry Filbert noticed a passing vehicle with
something that appeared to be dragging behind it. As he passed the vehicle, he saw the object
was a basset hound on a leash. "He
was picking them up and putting them down as fast as he could," said
Filbert. He chased the car to a stop,
and Tattoo was rescued, but not before the dog reached a speed of twenty-five
miles per hour, and rolled over several times. What a sight that must have
been! Poor dog!! (The dog was fine but asked not to go out for
an evening walk for a long time.)
There are too many of us whose days are marked by "picking them up and putting them down as
fast as we can." At some point
we must do more than just moan and groan about being tired, we must confess it
to Christ. You see, we can become so
tired “in” life that we become tired
“of” life. It is no longer our body that is tired; it is
our soul and our spirit as well.
Mark writes, In the early
morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away
to a secluded place, and was praying there. Simon and his companions searched
for Him; they found Him, and *said to Him, "Everyone is looking for
You." Mark 1:35-37 No, you
see, if you are going to find rest you cannot wait on someone to recognize your
need and stop their demands. They may
encourage you to stop what you are doing for others but not them. This call from Christ is yours to
answer. Jesus says, “Hey! If you are worn out from
your burden, come over here to Me.”
Scripture to Claim:
There
is nothing better for man than to eat, drink, and to enjoy his work. I have
seen that even this is from God's hand.
For who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from Him? Ecclesiastes 2:24-25
