The refrain I hear the most coming from my own lips and the lips of others these days is “I’m tired.” I dare you to count how many times you utter these words over the next week. Undoubtedly we live in a restless age. Of course this is partly due to our being overextended. We pack our schedules to the brim. The surrounding culture pretty well demands it. That is what we are expected to do. The worst part of it all is consistently hearing children and youth say that they are tired. May was a cruel month to students and families. Too much to do. Can I get an amen?
Yes, cultural expectations are making us tired. But on the other hand, we ourselves are making ourselves tired. We do not know how to stop. We are the problem. It is easy to blame the system, but we do it to ourselves: “Nobody’s fault but mine” (Blind Willie Johnson, 1927, and later Led Zeppelin, 1976). We know we need rest, real rest, but we keep chasing the high of feeling important, being busy, and avoiding the anxiety of simply existing. Despite these consequences, we choose being tired instead. Are you “tired of being tired” (Hawthorne Heights, 2021)?
There is a reason that God commanded rest in the Ten Commandments: he knew that without commanding it, we would never do it! We would rather chase the idols of productivity and self-justification. Remember the reason God gives for the Sabbath: on the first six days God created the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day he rested (Exodus 20:11). God rested. God was not doing, but rather he was simply being. But commanding “Rest!” does not bring about rest. That is why Jesus has become our rest. When he declared “It is finished” on the Cross, he won rest for us. The work is done, and in Christ we can simply be. In him we can live into the words of Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”
– Jay
“Be still and know that I am God.” -Psalm 46:10