Miracles in the Midst of Weariness

It has been a long day and I am tired. The sleep and rest that await me will be so welcome. I have traveled over 250 miles. The car seat got uncomfortable. I got sleepy, and that is not a comfortable feeling when you are driving 75 miles per hour on an interstate. I looked forward to the time when it would all be over.

I can only imagine Mary, the mother of Jesus, must have felt even worse at the end of that last day of her pregnancy. Scripture does not tell us how long she and Joseph were in Bethlehem before Jesus was born. It does not give us the details of where they stayed until the time of her delivery arrived.

All we are told is she was pregnant when they left Nazareth. She made that long journey to Bethlehem either walking or on the back of a slowly rocking donkey. Either way it could not have been easy.

Then there was the wait in a strange village away from family. Joseph would be trying to find a place to stay, taking care of census business for the family, and trying to find a way to make a living to support his family until all this government registration stuff was finished. Through it all he would have been concerned about his young, pregnant wife.

During the daylight hours Mary may have felt the contractions begin and slowly get more regular and more intense. The foretold event would soon take place. She would give birth to a son, the Son of God. Already under stress of all that had been happening in the previous nine months and earlier, she can only be described as tired, so very tired. She just wanted those last hours to pass quickly. She just wanted to rest.

Luk 2:5  He went to register with Mary, who was promised in marriage to him. She was pregnant,

Luk 2:6  and while they were in Bethlehem, the time came for her to have her baby.

Luk 2:7  She gave birth to her first son, wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger---there was no room for them to stay in the inn.

Joseph had not been able to find a suitable place for Mary to have the privacy and comfort she deserved in which to bring this special Child into the world, only an isolated stable. They would be out of the worst of the wind, but there would be none of the comforts of a human habitation.

Mary was tired. She would have wanted more, but in those hours she knew only she was about to have her baby. She wanted to have a healthy baby, she wanted Joseph to be by her side, and she wanted it all to be over.

Then it was. As so often happens, the pain and all the discomfort were soon forgotten. Mary held in her arms the promised Child, the fulfillment of prophecy, Emmanuel – God with us. The weariness fell away, and Mary knew the rewards of having been the maiden who was favored by God above all women.

Miracles don’t always occur when we think they should. Then again sometimes God’s timing matches up with ours in the most wonderful way. Birth is always a beautiful miracle. When it is the birth of the Son of God who is to be the Savior of the world, it is one of the best miracles of all.

Sometimes miracles are that big, big enough to change history. Mary experienced that kind. She also experienced the smaller kind that can mean so much to all of us. They are the small ones like a good night’s sleep after a long day of travel, or the rest that comes when a baby is born after a long day of labor.

On Christmas Eve may we take the time to thank God for the big miracles that change the history of the world and our part in it. Let us also remember to thank him for the small ones like the gift of rest.

Take A Breath!

I’m sure you have heard the statement, “Come apart before you fall apart.” I perhaps have shared the importance of this concept more than once in this blog. It bears repeating. Rest is something the human body needs. Rest is something the mind needs. Rest is something the spirit needs. With the holidays stretching out before us, you, your mind, your body, and your spirit need time to rest.

It doesn’t take much thought to list the benefits of rest. Your body’s cells have a chance to clean out and renew. Tissue has a chance to repair before the next big push. The brain has a chance to cull through all its experiences and file the accumulation in the proper levels of consciousness. Rest gives the soul a chance to hear God.

Over the next several weeks each of us will be involved in making plans for how we will spend each of the coming holidays. We will plan dates on which action has to be taken. We will plan the action we will take. We will plan travel or how to receive those who will be traveling. We will plan what to eat, where to sleep, and even how much sleep we can expect to get.

We will go shopping. We will decide what we will buy, how much we will pay for it, and who will receive it. We will decide how we will give it to them and if we will see them when we do. We will buy food, clothing, jewelry, household items, tools, travel tickets, and gift cards, perhaps lots of gift cards! We will decide when to use credit cards and when to use cash and when we have spent enough and when we are done.

God wonders if we will continue until we collapse, until the money runs out, or simply when the calendar says we have run out of time. Somewhere along the line he hopes we will slow down enough to get the rest he intended for us mortals. At the same time we will have the opportunity to listen to him.

When God clarified his laws on Sabbath rest in Deuteronomy 5:13-14, he was emphasizing the need to build in a break from the routine of making a living or the accumulation of things. We need rest. Rest is so important God commanded that everyone take time for it, a full day every week.

Deu 5:13  You have six days in which to do your work,

Deu 5:14  but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to me. On that day no one is to work---neither you, your children, your slaves, your animals, nor the foreigners who live in your country. Your slaves must rest just as you do.

The Gospel of Mark records Jesus saw the need for his disciples to find a place and time to rest especially in the midst of high emotion and conflicting expectations.

Mar 6:31  There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn't even have time to eat. So he said to them, "Let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest a while."

The wonder of these holidays cannot be enjoyed through the memories of others. Our own experiences must be a critical part of this time of year. If our memories are to be more than those of fighting shopping lines, standing in the kitchen baking, screaming at kids to leave things alone, and checking visitation schedules, then we must schedule a time to stop.

Take time in this season to sit and write a list of the good things in your life. Include the material things and those blessings found in relationships. Take time to see colors around you. Some will be in nature and some will be manmade. Take time to listen to sounds. Some will be natural. Others will be manmade. Some sounds will be uniquely human voices.

Take time to listen to God and in turn speak to him. He’s been waiting for this opportunity all year.

Stretch ‘Em Out Wide

Mat 11:28  "Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.

Mat 11:29  Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest.

Mat 11:30  For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light."

With these words Jesus opened the gates of heaven to anyone who was willing to admit who they were, confess their inability to do it all on their own, and accept what he was offering. To be only a three-letter word, “all” makes a lot of things possible for us through the love and sacrifice of Christ we would otherwise miss.

This last weekend concluded a two-week golf tournament known as the US Golf Kids World Championships. Nearly fifty foreign countries were represented along with forty-nine states. Only Alaska went without a representative. This was a tournament in which everyone was welcome. Of course you had to make it through all the preliminary rounds played around the world, but if you made the lowest score, you were welcome regardless of nation, color of skin, or family traditions.

Jesus gives an invitation to join him that is open to all. His invitation can be accepted by anyone. He has not set any kind of pre-existing conditions about who is receiving the invitation. He has not limited it to people of a certain race or nationality or physical condition. He offers rest to anyone who will see him as who he is, the One who can give rest and relief.

Unlike the golf tournament, there are no preliminary rounds in which one must succeed to be welcomed into the presence of Christ. We can all come as we are and be accepted. Acceptance by Jesus depends not upon what we can do, but upon the place we are willing to give him in our lives.

What Jesus asks is that we become like him. We are to take his yoke and put it upon our shoulders, allowing it to dictate what our lives will be. We are to learn from him. We become the students while he remains the Master Teacher. We do not make him fit our desires. In being fitted to his yoke, we become transformed into his nature.

The rest we find comes from allowing him to carry the load. We find rest as we conform to his ways instead of fighting him as we seek to be acceptable in the eyes of the world. We find the rest that no conflict in this world can destroy as we allow the Master of the yoke to give guidance, teach the acceptable pattern of life, and carry the heaviest of our burdens.

In the Gospel of John we find a longer word that means the same thing as “all”.

Joh 3:16  For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. (my emphasis)

“Everyone who believes” is welcome to come and find the rest Jesus has promised. Is there a qualification to receiving this eternal life? Yes, it is a thing called belief. Is there a qualification to receiving the rest Jesus has offered? Yes, it is called taking his yoke upon our shoulders. To be a part of the “all” and “everyone” to whom the invitation is extended, we must come with honest and humble hearts that can receive the offer.

A short story goes in some fashion as this: I asked Jesus how much he loved me. He said, “This much,” and he stretched out his arms and died. He stretched his arms wide enough to take in the world, all the world and everyone who would believe. He bids us to welcome others in the same way.

Time To Get Away

When Jesus told his disciples to come away with him to escape the demanding crowds, he wasn’t looking for just a time to regroup and then return to the chaos. (Mark 6:30-32) He was emphasizing the need to get some rest, to be distracted from the needs of the world and focus upon the emotional, relational, physical, and spiritual needs every human being has. Their mission work had depleted them of the energy they needed to continue in Kingdom work.

Those disciples needed rest. They hadn’t done hard farm work or spent 72 straight hours pulling nets filled with fish. They had just returned from preaching the gospel, healing the sick, and casting out demons. (Mark 6:12-13) The work of the Kingdom of God is greater than human strength alone can support. Even with the help of the Holy Spirit, exhaustion can be the result of faithful service. Such was the case for the disciples. Jesus told them, “Come away… and rest a while.”

We do ourselves a great disservice when we do not do the same. Physically we need sleep. Our bodies need to turn off and let cells cleanse themselves. Our brains need to have time to recalculate everything they absorbed during the waking hours, holding some details in easy access and sending others into the deeper subconscious. Minds can refocus on priorities and options allowing for clearer thinking and well thought out resolutions. Our emotions need times when peace is dominant and hormones can reestablish equilibrium.

At times of such peace and rest God may well have the best chance to break into our private world, get our attention, and share something with us we had been too busy to hear. Jesus told his disciples to come away with him after a prolonged period of work. They needed a change of pace, a change of scenery, a chance to think without pressure, and a chance to recharge their batteries. To ignore the need was to lessen their ability to serve their Master.

We don’t have to use our imaginations much to see what happens when we don’t take time to get away. On the mild end of the spectrum we fall asleep at work or worse yet while driving. We get grumpy and carry a short fuse on our tempers. Our response time shortens and we become more prone to accidents. As our situation moves toward the extreme, our immune system weakens and we become more susceptible to illness.

I doubt very much if it is unique to ministers, but in our vocation we call one result of a lack of rest, “burnout”. Enthusiasm is gone. Creativity is gone. Energy is gone. Any desire to participate is gone. The individual is left an emotional shell. Too many emotional battles and too many broken dreams leave the worker with no desire to work. This goes far beyond a mood or passing state. This person simply has nothing to give and there is nothing left in the inner reservoir.

Jesus told his disciples to come away and rest a while. He knew their human strength was limited. He knew there was a lot of road ahead still to be traveled. As the old saying goes, if they did not come apart, they were bound to fall apart.

We need to get away on a regular basis. The easiest way is to get adequate sleep. Even Shakespeare wrote that into his plays, “Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care.” (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2) Another way is to schedule down times on a regular basis when personal interests take precedence over business.

On a periodic basis get a change in scenery if only for a few hours. A one or two night stay somewhere does not have to be at a five star hotel. More important than the amount of time is how the time will be spent. The world of stress and work must be left behind. There is no rest when the load is taken along. God has to be given a chance to restore and replenish.