Rest, learning, easy yokes, light burdens
I'm here. Laying on my back, unable to do a whole lot else and I wonder what our lives would be like if we abandoned every imaginary version of the future that isn't demonstrating the goodness of God.
What if we gave up on visualizing a future where God is anything less than faithful?
What if we gave up on visualizing a future where God is anything less than a good Father?
What if we gave up on visualizing a future where God is anything less than the perfect shepherd?
What if we gave up on visualizing a future where God is anything less than a wonderful Provider?
What if we gave up on visualizing a future where God is anything less than our Savior?
What if we gave up on visualizing a future where God does anything less than working all things together for our good?
How much peace is accessible to us in the here and now if we turned all those vain imaginations on their head and instead chose to visualize a future where He is good to us?
What if we instead used our powerful imagination to imagine what different ways His goodness could manifest in our lives and future circumstances?
What if He will do exceedingly, abundantly ABOVE all that we ask think or imagine? What our part is to ask, think and imagine what God is going to do next knowing that He is going to one-up us and blow our minds and expand our hearts by how He comes through with us and for us.
What if that goodness is here and now? What if He's really here? What if all of that potential goodness is alive inside of you this very minute?
What if the indwelling Holy Spirit, The One who is going to do all this, is present here and now? What if we can live our every moment alive and aware of His goodness and what if we lived from this potential?
What could our families look like?
What could our communities look like?
What could the world look like when people start to live like this is all true?
Anyway.
I'm feeling the wind blowing. I'm feeling God inviting my ADHD self to partner with Him and shift my life around a bit to partner with Him in facilitating this kind of thing. It makes me nervous because I know I'm really good at getting distracted by shiny things but I think He's calling me forth anyway.
I'm asking for prayer. My back's blown at the moment and I'm unable to work and I've gotta trust Him in some really practical ways right now that are really familiar and in places where I've seen hundreds of breakthroughs.
And yet, it still feels kind of scary. Why is it scary? I've seen God come through in harder circumstances than this countless times.
Why is it scary? It's only scary if He's not good. This circumstance is allowing me to see areas where I've shifted my trust from The Goodness of God to my own strength.
It’s scary because at some point in the last however long since I’ve been in the process of rebuilding this house and doing what I felt I needed to do to keep my family afloat, I started to believe that it’s all on me.
I’m the head of my household. It’s in me to make sure that Erika and the kids have a roof over their head and food on the table, but to rebuild this mess of a house having never done it before. As I learned skills, I’ve stopped asking for help. I started to believe that this burden is on me and in a lot of ways, it is. That sounds really American and virtuous and manly and all that but what happened when my strength is taken suddenly?
One day I’m building a chicken house and by the end of the day, I can’t walk or go to work to earn a living. One day I’m strong and capable and the next, I’m not.
I’m scared because at some point, I forgot.
I forgot that it isn’t all on me. I forgot the invitation of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30.
“Come to Me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
I’ve been laboring and bearing this heavy burden in my own strength. I’ve not had rest. I started to live like I have no Helper. I’ve been carrying this burden alone like a good ole American man who works his ass off until his body breaks or a heart attack kills him.
I’ve been under a different yoke than the one Jesus has invited me to carry with Him. My yoke has not been easy. It’s been hard. My burden has not been light, it’s been very heavy. So heavy, it’s literally made my back buckle under the pressure I’ve been putting on it.
I’ve been living by my own strength and God, in His grace has allowed me to come to the end of my strength so that I can remember that His grace is sufficient for me, for His strength is made perfect in my weakness. So that I can be reminded that He has a light yoke for me to carry. A light yoke is all that my body can handle right now. And easy burden is about all I can handle right now.
The fact that I’m afraid when my strength fails shows me that I was trusting in my own strength far too much.
But what if.......what if He's actually the provider? What if He's the shepherd?
What is He has a yoke for me that comes with rest?
What if I can unload the heavy burden?
What if I can cease from the toilsome labor?
What if I can lay down the heaviness?
What God has work for me that’s easy and light because Jesus is bearing the load with me?
What if it’s safe to trust God as the ultimate head of my household?
What if it’s my job to ensure maximum goodness for my family and what if the best way to go about that is to walk fully in alignment with how God has ordained me to live?
What if the best way to ensure that is to be waking in step with The Father instead of just mindlessly working hard like some kind of orphan fighting for survival?
There is rest for our souls.
There is an easy yoke.
There is a light burden.
To access them, we are invited to come to Jesus.
We are invited to lay down all the heavy labor and burdens we have taken on in place of trusting Him.
We are invited to instead rest and take on that work that Jesus has for us to do.
This is the transition I am in. This is the transition that He is inviting us into.
It’s going to look different for all of us.
Is it a call to stop working?
I don’t think so. It’s a call to lay down mindless labor that the spirit of the age prods into.
It’s the call to lay down the heaviness of orphan culture and to instead come under The Culture of The Good Father.