Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Waiting for Strength to Arrive

The popular contemporary Christian song Everlasting God contains the phrase, “strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord.”  This is a biblical notion for sure, but how foreign it is to our modern American approach to life.  We get stronger by waiting? We draw energy from inertia? By our seemingly obsessive activity, one would think that our weariness is not a result of insufficient passivity, but rather too little time.  Why?  Because we really could do less…we just choose not to.  If you polled most people on why they seem stressed or exhausted, one of the main complaints would be something like this:  There are just not enough hours in the day for me to accomplish everything I need to do.  But is that, in fact, the issue?  Do we just need more time?

A few years ago, a Hollywood movie addressed the issue of time as the new currency in a thriller entitled In Time, starring Justin Timberlake.  What intrigued me was the premise: a future society where the ultimate commodity is not money, not land, but time.  Imagine, in the not-too-distant future, that scientists have discovered a way to turn off the aging gene. As the threat of overpopulation looms over society, money becomes a thing of the past. Now, assets are measured in time; those with the most time also possess the most power. Meanwhile, the lower classes are forced to barter with the new elite if they want to live forever.
 
The concept is compelling.  And it rings true.  What we all wish we had more of—is time.  Time to get stuff done.  Time to go here and there.  Time to get and stay busy.  And certainly, more time to relax. What appears to be elusive for many of us is not acquiring more time, even for relaxation, but really learning how to rest. Not just a yoga, hmmmm-type relaxation, but what God’s Word refers to as stillness, the ceasing of striving.  Rest.  And there is much in the Word to establish the importance of resting, of finding rest…of actually pursuing rest. In his best seller Too Busy Not to Pray, well-known pastor, teacher, and author Bill Hybels suggests that our real need is not more time for more activity, but more time communing with the One who made us…and then Himself rested.

Genesis 2:2 begins “By the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.”

Psalm 46:10 reminds us to “Be still and know that I am God.”

Psalm 62 says “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken."

Luke 10:38-42 illustrates the restful posture of Mary, as compared to the busy, but un-peaceful, attitude of sister Martha.

Hebrews 4: 9-11 cautions: “There remains, then a Sabbath-rest for the people of God. For anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His.  Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their examples of disobedience.”

These are but a few of the references that are the basis for a contemporary poem, ‘Til They Rest in You, written by songwriter Tony Wood.

Comes an honest moment when each heart looks inside
Finding nothing here on earth truly satisfies 
Some choose to ignore the ache, some confess it’s true  
God, our hearts will have no peace ‘til they rest in You

Every pleasure, every thrill never is enough 
Every trophy, even gold, simply turns to dust 
Most still search to find real joy yet they never do 
God, our hearts will have no peace ‘til they rest in You

We yearn, we thirst, we stumble in the dark 
Discontent, for You’ve set eternity within each heart.

Thank You for my desperate days, feeling incomplete
Thank You for Your loving ways, leading me to see
 Jesus, You are all I need, nothing else will do 
God, our hearts will have no peace ‘til they rest in You 

Resting in God is less about relaxing and more about relinquishing.  The writer to the Hebrews tells us that “anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His.”  As we jump into yet another school year and, as God’s people, embark on another cycle in the church calendar, take some time to reflect on how often you think or are caught commenting on your current or anticipated weariness.  Why not take an inventory of your “rest to work ratio” and see if it even comes close to the 1 in 7 standard set by the Creator of the universe.  He worked six days and rested the seventh, even thereby institutionalizing a Sabbath rest for His people.

Tired of striving?  Tired of working for fulfillment, acceptance, significance?  How about waving the white flag of surrender?  Take time.  Make time. Put intentional space into your day or week to meet with God and consciously give Him your stress and weariness. And then take Jesus at his word in this busy season:  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matt. 11:28)

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