Thoughts on the purpose of rest in our walk with Christ.

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. ~Isaiah 40:29-31 I have spent today resting on this passage. Knowing that so much of my life is consumed by what I do, or what I want to do. I spend so much of my energy and my time focused on tasks at hand. Many of these tasks are very noble and holy things to do that are very much a part of my personal mission to serve my creator. But when I see the tasks at hand as a measure of myself as a man or when I lose focus on the greater purpose behind them, I grow weary and I grow weak. That’s when I get discouraged and that’s when criticism messes me up the most. It’s also when I’m most likely to try to take more control over things in my life, like my ministry or like the direction of my relationships. this process drains me emotionally and drains me physically. I have such a hard time physically resting and quieting my mind because I really, still, in many ways believe that it’s all up to me. In a lot of ways I still don’t trust that God actually cares for me, has regard for me, and will use me in his will. But this verse points me to the secret sauce for defeating weariness and tiredness; it is finding hope in the Lord. And the word abide comes to mind again for this. Hope and abide mean to place my purpose, my life’s direction, my stability and my significance in the grander picture of God’s great plan...his glory. All of the things that I do are contained with in God‘s plan to bring glory to His name. All of my activities at work, and my personal life and in my relationships are ultimately purposed toward working out God’s glorious plans. Whether I see it or not or believe it or not, that is what’s happening. God says that understanding my life this way gives me strength, it lets me soar on wings like eagles, and it lets me run and not grow weary. I think this is because pursuing my own glory is a futile effort. I am ultimately not a glorious creature and my work to glorify myself never actually accomplishes what I am aiming for it to accomplish. But working to glorify my creator will never fail to do so because His glory IS! And the strength come to me through the fulfillment of knowing that my purpose, my work, my direction, my effort will not fail to achieve what they are purposed to achieve; that purpose of glorifying my creator. Strength comes from fulfillment. In light of this, I believe learning to rest both physically and mentally is crucial for the process of releasing myself from the responsibility of glorifying myself. Taking my hands off of things that I want to completely own, forces me to consider why I do them in the first place. Providing that space for my body to regenerate and for my mind to recuperate allows me to step back and see how my busyness has either glorified God or glorified myself. Today I’m taking a step back to consider how much of what I do is done in light of hope in the Lord, versus Hope in myself. I wouldn’t say there is anything that’s all one way or the other, but it seems to be a mixture of things, and it fluctuates from day to day. Some examples. I think of doing set up. The days when I am shortsighted and not hoping in the lord, I work out of my own energy and for my own pride of just being “such a capable guy”. In these times I am definitely more likely to grow weary, tired and frustrated. But days when I am reminded of the mission and when I am more internally focused on the grander hope in the glory of my creator through the activity of setting up, set up and teardown both seem to go so quickly and seems so much less draining. When I consider discipling my high schoolers; I often enjoy receiving accolades and praise from parents about what a great guy I am and many times that will motivate me to serve my own righteousness by discipling them well. But that is not a great motivator because it comes and goes. And coincidentally, the motivation seems to go away when the discipleship is hardest. But rather when I keep in mind the big picture of glorifying God through this and inviting these guys to learn what it looks like to do so in their lives as well, discipleship goes from draining too incredibly invigorating and actually very rewarding. My desire to spend time with these guys and pour myself out on their behalf seems endless. And I’m my dating relationship, the times when I am focused on what I want to get out of it, what will satisfy me, what I think I need or deserve; those are the times when I am easily discouraged, when my mind runs off on self deprecating tangents and when I am most likely to consider manipulative or self-serving actions. But when my hope is in the Lord, and when I abide in His love and seek His will for my relationship, those are the times, and they are becoming much more frequent, that dying to myself for her sake becomes a very attractive hill to climb. When I consider my relationship in light of the gospel, and realize the immense blessing that it is, dying to self does not seem like a hard thing to do but it seems like an honorable and invigorating prospect. I think of the way the ancient samurai would prepare for battle; they would grow to see going to battle and potentially dying there, not as a great sacrifice, but as the righteous end to all of their preparation. They would thirst for that challenge. Learning to rest and training my mind to hope in the Lord rather than Hope in myself awakens this Warrior’s spirit within me. To rest, to hope and to abide in the Lord is to assure victory. All of this shows me that learning to rest is to learn to let go control. Resting is to refocus my energy toward finding God in my life and continually redirecting my efforts toward his glory and not mine. Truly, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and the propitiation of sin are the most glorifying actions ever undertaken in the history of the world. My life is purposed toward knowing this incredible Christ more, and aiming my hope in the promise of the cross, while I work to show and lead others to do the same. And that is something I can rest in. I’m glad that I have decided to rest today.