Finding Rest

So many of the conversations I have with friends and colleagues seem to become competitions in which we each try to “out-busy” the other, as if there would be something almost shameful about saying, “You know, last week was really well-balanced with a great, sustainable work/rest rhythm.” Of course, having brought our best to the “busy” contest, we go on to complain about how crazy and unmanageable life has become.

There are days when the pace of life feels overwhelming, and when Jesus’ invitation to rest seems the ultimate gift. But just as I reach out to grab it, I realize that this is one gift that I can only have by giving up something else. In order to embrace the “rest” I long for, I have to let go of the compulsive busyness that seems to insist on being the ordering principle of my life. Instead, Jesus asks for the prerogative of setting the pace of life. This is not an invitation to stop dead in my tracks, but it is an encouragement to let the rhythm of life be defined by the one who knows me better than I know myself.

Lord, let my work today flow from the restfulness of being yoked with you. Amen. — CN