Rest for Your Souls

Advent Day 11

Second Wednesday in Advent

December 7

Reading: Matthew 11:28–29 (NRSV)

²⁸ “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Theme: Rest for Your Souls

Reflection:

“Come to me all you who are weary…and you will find rest for your souls.’’ Often in December we need to find rest for both our bodies and our souls. Perhaps we need to find rest for our bodies because we don’t have rest for our souls. Without rest for our souls, our bodies seem to be always running around seeking something.

As much as I enjoy Christmas, and I am a self-confessed Christmas junkie, I wonder how much my striving to “make Christmas” is not some subconscious attempt to seek something. Am I looking to re-create some remembered magic of childhood Christmases (which admittedly were much simpler than those of today)?

We had our time-honored traditions, one of which was going to a 7:30 bilingual Christmas Eve service (German and English), followed by a special meal after church, and then present opening. The large darkened church with the candles in the windows, large tree in the front, poinsettias around the altar, the Gospel read in German, and the magnificent sounds of the pipe organ created a Christmas Eve aura that I looked forward to each year.

I wonder if by trying to keep and expand Christmas traditions I am, in reality, seeking the specialness and Christmas “high” of Christmases past. Trying to do that may just leave me with a worn out body and a dissatisfied soul. I still love Christmas Eve worship, and perhaps that’s the seeking I have to do—seeking the source of the Christmas delight rather than the trappings.

In this Advent and secular pre-Christmas season, Jesus’ words “Come to me” are perhaps the soul satisfaction I need. With a soul that rests in Jesus, I won’t have to do so much seeking, and perhaps, maybe perhaps, my body won’t be so tired!

Prayer: Lord, God, help me to come to your son Jesus and rest in him. Help me to slow down my striving and seeking and instead rest in Christ. Amen

Reflections on God's Gift of the Sabbath

Lent Day 12: Tuesday March 2

Theme for the Week: God’s Gift of the Ten Commandments

Passage for the Day:

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

¹²Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁴ But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Reflection: In our hurried, rushed, more-to-do-than-time-to-do-it pace of life, keeping sabbath doesn’t seem to be a priority. It often seems that we are too busy to dedicate the time to rest, reflect, worship, pray or allow for renewal. In the Deuteronomy version of the Ten Commandments, the command to observe the sabbath is followed by an explanation of the need to rest, and by a reminder of the Israelites’ time of slavery in Egypt, with its implication of physical exhaustion. God is commanding a sabbath time because God knows that the human body was not designed to function without rest.

Have you ever had the experience of pushing yourself beyond tiredness, only to find that it seemed to take twice as long to do the work, or to find out that what you did was faulty? Have you ever had the experience of mishandling some human interaction when you were tired? Have you ever felt your stress level rise when you push yourself to accomplish more than there is time for? God wants you to take time to be whole and healthy.

What does keeping the sabbath holy look like to you? On a holy sabbath there is time spent in God’s presence. In the presence of the Holy One and in the community of fellow believers, you are given the opportunity to stop running for a few moments, to rest, to reflect on your life and to pray about things that are concerning you.

What if your job demands that you work on Sunday? It is possible to choose a different day as your sabbath. On that day, can you set aside time to be in God’s presence through practicing individual devotions? Is there perhaps a church in your area that offers worship at a different time? Find some way to preserve sabbath time—give yourself permission to rest, unwind and be in God’s presence.

Prayer Themes: Pray that you might be able to recognize and appreciate God’s gift of sabbath time. Pray that you would be able to give yourself the gift of time to rest, renew and be in God’s presence. Thank God for sabbath time.