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Deborah Brunt - www.keytruths.com
For maximum enjoyment, listen to the song yourself. But the answer, in a nutshell, is this: You get everything back - including your house, your dog, your best friend AND your mind, your nerves, your life. I laughed out loud on hearing this song for the first time. But the delightfully wacky theme also made me wonder: How often do we deeply desire the opposite results to what we're now getting? And how often can we get the opposite results only by doing some things BACKWARDS? In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus issued an invitation that has nothing to do with this Rascal Flatts tune - and everything to do with it. Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." |
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Notice: This invitation isn't for everyone. Rather, it's
for "all you who are weary and burdened." It's for
folks who need to get their mind, their nerves and
their life back - and are willing to admit it.
If you never feel tired, exhausted or worn down by life's frantic pace, this invitation isn't for you. If you're never emotionally wrung out or discouraged because of life's demands, this invitation isn't for you. If you're never weighed down by rules and responsibilities, if you never stagger under the load of your personal situation, your family situation or the world situation, this invitation isn't for you. If, on the other hand, weariness and heavy loads seem to characterize much of your life, Jesus is delivering a personal invitation with your name inscribed on it. This invitation is not for "some who are weary and burdened," not even for "many who are weary and burdened" - but rather for ALL who will simply say, "That's me. You're describing me." |
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So, yes, a lot of us need this invitation. But if we
had to identify the 10 least believed verses in
Scripture - least believed, that is, by Bible-believing
American Christians - this would be one of them.
We read Jesus' invitation - "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." We recognize our own exhaustion. We know we desperately need what He's offering. Leaning into Jesus' words, we savor them. We long to believe them. We may even try to live them. But for all our longing and trying, most of us have not experienced what Jesus invites us to experience. We've found His words sweet and lovely, but impractical and frustrating. Because we've been unable to live them, deep down we do not believe they are true. So was Jesus naïve? Is His promise a lie? Did it work in another time and place, but not in ours? Or have we got some things BACKWARDS? |
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Consider rest, for example. Though we need
it, we do not value it. Instead, we treat "downtime"
as a necessary evil. If we absolutely cannot go a
step further, we "crash" for a few moments - and
feel guilty for the duration. To our way of thinking,
rest equals laziness. In our psyche,
rest is sin.
Further, we're pretty sure busyness equals importance. We're sure because this is what our culture tells us. In her book, Harnessing the Power of a Balanced Life, Lynn Bell notes, "Society values the person with the longest to do-list and the most check marks." Seeking significance, "Many women can find themselves addicted to urgency." "The more our life speeds up, the more we feel weary, overwhelmed and lost," writes Wayne Muller in Remembering the Sacred Rhythm of Rest. "Despite our good hearts and equally good intentions, our life and work rarely feel light, pleasant or healing. Instead, as it all piles endlessly upon itself, the whole experience of being alive begins to melt into one enormous obligation. It becomes the standard greeting everywhere: 'I am so busy.' We say this to one another with no small degree of pride, as if our exhaustion were a trophy, our ability to withstand stress a mark of real character. The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves, and, we imagine, to others. To be unavailable to our friends and family, to be unable to find time for the sunset (or even to know that the sun has set at all), to whiz through our obligations without time for a single mindful breath - this has become the model of a successful life." |
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Tragically, this is the mindset, not only of our
culture, but of our church culture.
Question: How do we identify the "most committed Christians"? Answer: They're the busiest ones in the church, of course. They attend every service, serve on numerous committees, hold multiple positions and can always be counted on to accept another responsibility, no matter how overextended they already are. In our minds, activity equals commitment. Further, we're pretty sure that, once you're a Christian, "coming to Christ" means going to the church building regularly. But let's check the accuracy of that assumption. Jesus said, "Come to me . . . and I will give you rest." If you've been "actively involved in church" for any length of time, have you found that "going to church" gives you rest? Or have you found just the opposite? Remember, Jesus issued His invitation to those who are "weary and burdened." Elsewhere in the gospels, He points out one primary source of these burdens. In Matthew 23:4, Jesus says of the scribes and Pharisees, "They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders." In Luke 11:46, He announces, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry." Do Jesus' strong statements regarding religious leaders mean that pastors and other church leaders are the bad guys? No. Pastors and church leaders are often the MOST weary and burdened members of the congregation. For seven years, I worked for a denominational entity. The entire seven years, I was constantly pedaling as hard as I could - yet never came close to catching up. I was always overwhelmed, always "behind," always adding seven things to my to-do list for every one thing I accomplished. I was also seeking desperately, daily to operate God's way - earnestly desiring to understand the right use for the right moment and to do it by the Spirit of God. I constantly cried out for grace to enter His rest. My frustration mounted as the frantic pace and heavy load made real rest impossible. Looking around, I saw that I wasn't the only one operating in a constant state of near-exhaustion. Almost everyone around me was, too. Only after leaving that position did I realize the reason my co-workers and I - along with many pastors, church leaders and other "committed Christians" of all denominations - are not experiencing the rest Jesus promised: Like the religious leaders of Jesus' day, the religious system in which we're operating is loading us down with burdens we can hardly carry. The greater our alignment with and allegiance to this system, the deeper the weariness, the heavier the load. Because we've honestly believed that faithfulness to our religious structures equals commitment to Christ, we keep struggling to move forward - in quicksand. Up to our necks in the mire, we mistake the quicksand for the cross. "This is the cost of discipleship," we tell ourselves. By what we say and what we model, we call others to follow us in sinking under burdens that Christ emphatically denounced. Jesus gives rest. If what we're getting is the opposite of what He promised, where we're going isn't to Him. If what we're doing is sucking us under, the song we're playing is, "Woe to us." |
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We think activity equals commitment,
but God says, "No, that's backwards." We think
rest equals laziness, but God says,
"No, that's backwards." We think we're resting when
our body crashes temporarily, while inwardly we're
still going 90 miles an hour. God says, "No, that's
backwards."
In the next issue of What's a Woman to Do?, we'll consider what it means to come to Jesus and receive rest. We'll see how this looked in the lives of four women who knew Christ while He walked this earth. But you don't have to wait till next month to begin to receive what Christ offers. If you're weary and burdened, if indeed you feel imprisoned in a system that applauds exhaustion and keeps piling on burdens, it's time to stop the music - and play that song backward. Say to the Lord Jesus Himself, "I'm coming to You. I'm trusting You to show me how to come to You. I'm trusting You to help me identify and overcome whatever is in the way." Take time to ponder each Scripture below. Read each aloud slowly, and then review the words silently. As you receive the word of God, listen for the voice of God. If you belong to Christ, you can hear His voice. Keep pondering until you know what He's saying specifically to you. Isaiah 30:15. "This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: 'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.'" Jeremiah 6:16. "This is what the LORD says: 'Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, "We will not walk in it."'" Matthew 11:28-30. "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly" (MSG). Psalm 116:7. "Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you" (NASU). Whatever He says to you, tell Him aloud that you receive it. Whatever He tells you - regardless whether it seems impossible or silly or totally unrelated to the subject at hand - do it. As you listen, trust and obey, you come to Him. You recover your life. You return to your rest. . . . . . . . Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from New International Version. Also used: New American Standard Updated (NASU) and The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson (MSG). All rights reserved. |
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How else can I help you?
When we lose our keys, we stop everything else to
search for them. We know we cannot get
where we need to go without them. But what if
we've misplaced key truths - truths we
cannot ignore and still get where God wants
us to go? NOW ON DVD! Two Bible studies, 4
sessions each:
Key Truths.
Key Truths for Leading Well and Key Truths for Kingdom Living are on sale through December 15. For sale prices, order by e-mail or mail (instead of website). E-mail addresses: deborah_brunt@keytruths.com and deborah_brunt@sbcglobal.net
. . . . . . . The following are available at no charge by e-mailing either of the above addresses. Be sure to indicate which you're requesting:
. . . . . . . Want a different perspective on Christmas? Go to the Perspective page of www.keytruths.com. To sign up for Deborah's weekly Perspective column, scroll to the bottom of the page and click where indicated. . . . . . . . Read back issues of Deborah's weekly column, Perspective, on her blog. . . . . . . . In John's gospel, Jesus identifies himself several times with the I AM God of the Old Testament. What he revealed shows us how to pray. A new call to prayer is added weekly. Go to Praying Together at www.keytruths.com. . . . . . . . Browse Deborah's speaking topics at www.keytruths.com. . . . . . . . © 2006 Deborah P. Brunt. All rights reserved. |
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