Skip to main content

A Prescription for the Weary

"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 soul."  Matthew 11:28-29
 
I don't think there is anything heavier or more awkward to move from one place to another than a piano.  If you have ever witnessed or taken part in the moving of a piano, you know exactly what I am talking about.  You would think that a piano was filled with a ton of lead if you ever tried to pick one up!
 
I just witnessed the moving of a piano the other day.  As I watched my husband, his friend, and his father struggle with the grueling task of lifting the piano up a set of stairs, I was reminded of all of the people I come in contact with on a daily basis that are trudging through life carrying various heavy burdens along the way. 
 
Our society is so emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausted.  There is a world of weary people (Christian and non-Christian alike) who need exactly what Jesus prescribed in Matthew chapter eleven, they need rest for their souls. 
 
In Eugene Peterson's interpretation The Message, he phrases verse 28 like this:
 
"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."
 
He very plainly shows us that the prescription for coming out from under the weight of our burdens is spending some one on one time with the One and Only -- Jesus! 
 
There are so many examples in the Bible where Jesus ministered to the weary and burdened people that He came in contact with.  He lifted the burdens of countless individuals who were weary from blindness, lameness, sadness, demon possession, blood disorders, sick or dying family members and ultimately, all those who were suffering from the sickness of sin.  If He lifted their burdens, He's willing and able to lift mine and yours.
 
What heavy burdens are you carrying around today?
  • Are you grieving over the soul of a lost loved one?
  • Are you weary from a broken relationship?
  • Are you discouraged about your health or the health of someone you love?
  • Are you carrying around the guilt of past sins?
  • Are you just plain tired from the busy-ness of life?
We have a promise in this verse that if we come to Him, He will give us rest.  If He is capable of carrying the weight of a cross and all of the sins of the world on His shoulders, He is more than capable of carrying you and I. 

I need rest for my soul today.  Do you?

I'm going to claim this promise.  Will you?


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Heartfelt Reflections of a Country Church

The smells, sounds, and people of country churches stir an emotion within me that is deep and powerful. For those who have never had the opportunity to experience this blessed experience, let me explain.   From the moment you step into the vestibule (never called a foyer in a rural church), you instantly smell the footsteps of every person who has crossed that threshold - the mother with a load of kids in tow, the farmer, the truck driver, the wayward child. If those paneled walls could talk, they would tell of grace and guilt and sorrow and joy that couldn’t be hidden on the faces of the souls that dared to cross that doorway. Those walls would write books of clinched fists, tears on the altar, and singing from the saints. The smell of the aged carpet, whose color may have caused an outright quarrel in a business meeting, the creak of the floor, and the golden memorial tags lead you to a nostalgic thing of days gone by - a pew, padded if you’re lucky.   As you wait for the ob...

I love my kids, BUT. . . .

"Schoolhouse Rock" was one of mine and my husband's favorite educational past times.  Bob Dorough, writer for "Schoolhosue Rock," was a genius when he put educational factoids to quirky music and cute cartoons.  From the preamble to the Constitution, to parts of speech, multiplication facts, how electricity works, and much more, Mr. Dorough slyly disguised learning and actually made it fun! Like all good parents, we passed this educational relic on to our kids.  One of our favorite songs from "Schoolhouse Rock" is without a doubt " Conjunction Junction ."  Its jazzy rhythm easily gets stuck in your head for the rest of your day ( sorry in advance! ).  This song teaches how conjunctions mechanically work in a sentence and what their purpose is.  The conjunction 'BUT' is one that we use all the time to connect two sentences or a clause to a sentence. "I like pizza,  BUT  I don't like olives on it." "I want to...

Taking the Mask Off

If I’ve learned anything over the last few weeks of wearing masks when going out in public, it’s that wearing a mask makes it hard to breathe.   The trapped air recirculating in and out gets thick and burdensome. The same is true for the invisible mask I wear on the days that I’m trying to hide the reality of what’s going on below the surface.   There comes a point when the air that has gotten trapped between my invisible mask and my unfortunate reality gets so heavy that ripping it off and gasping for a dose of fresh, life-giving oxygen is the only remedy.   ( Cue the proverbial mask selfie that everyone has had to take during quarantine. ) I think many of us frequently wear a mask, intentionally or unintentionally, to hide the reality of what’s underneath. We mask up to present a façade. A watered-down version of the true us. A suffocating misrepresentation of our current existence.  We’re all guilty.  One of my favorite person...