Rest

“Will I ever get a good night’s rest again? ” I was seriously beginning to doubt it! I’d decided our pillow-top mattress was not only old but perhaps not soft enough for my side-sleeping tendencies. We bought a softer mattress. I decided it was too soft. We bought a firmer mattress. I decided it was too firm. I called to find out our options for another exchange and the guy basically told me I had none. I was bummed. There I was, 3 mattresses later and still unable to sleep throughout the night without tossing and turning from back, shoulder, and neck discomfort.

Then I had a light bulb moment: What if the problem is not external? Perhaps I am the problem and not what I’m sleeping on. With that in mind, I took a dose of prescription medication my doctor had given me a while back for my pain. Voila, I slept much better and woke up pain-free.

I did not need a new mattress. I needed some medicine; something that could change what was happening on the inside of my body.  Yes, a “good” mattress can add comfort and support to my external body, but I needed an option that could more directly eradicate some inflammation and alleviate some pain. I had to ingest something to get those results.

How often do we waste time, energy, and money modernizing, updating, and trading out one thing for another in an attempt to feel better, look better, or do better? We’ve tried a new man, a new job, a new car, a new look. We’ve spent more, subscribed more, drank more, smoked more. We’ve logged in, “liked”, and “swiped.” We have enough selfies to plaster the state capital, a long enough “friends” list to pave a 30-mile walking trail, and we still find ourselves asking, “Will I ever get a good night’s rest again?”

Yes! In Matthew 11:28-29a Jesus encourages us with this invitation: “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 . . .”

We have gone to them. We have taken on our own yoke. We have applied the lessons they taught.  It hasn’t worked.

Jesus is telling us to let go of the burden of trying to do it and fix it ourselves with all of the “stuff” this world offers and to instead embrace a life lived by faith in Him. How do we “live by faith?” We do this as we “learn from [Him]. This is, we ingest His Word. As a result, we are transformed by something powerful enough to directly relieve the pain in our lives. We grow up in Him and learn that this place is not our home. His word encourages us and reminds us that our purpose here is far deeper than to grab hold of the shallow things we’ve been chasing.

The more we read the Bible, the more we will understand the Bible. The more we understand the Bible, the more intimately we know the Author of the Bible. Our faith will increase. Go ahead and take a dose of what was prescribed for each one of us a while back, His Word, and voila: the validation, the peace, the security, the REST we long for will be felt right there in a faith-fueled relationship with Him.