The REST of the story…..

Last week, I did something that has been waiting in the wings for 6 years. I took a vacation. God has been telling me to take some time off for a while. You know how God sometimes hits you with a 2x4? Sometimes a 4x8? Sometimes an 8x8! I needed REST! And I have the splinters to prove it!

By and large, Americans don’t value rest and relaxation. We’ve made a virtue of unceasing labor; we brag about how busy we are. Our busy lives are proof that we’re important and significant, right?

We feel guilty when we’re not working, and if you don’t work, we sometimes have negative views on them. Take vacations, for example. In Europe , the standard is five or six weeks of time off per year. In France, the whole country basically shuts down for the month of August, and everyone heads to the beach or the mountains. And while the number of public holidays in the U.S. is seven; in Europe it’s ten or eleven.

Japan is the only country that takes less time off then we do. The Japanese work so hard that one of the most serious health issues in Japan is "karoshi," or "death by overwork”. The Europeans simply have a different attitude as to the proper balance between work and leisure.

Americans tend to be fairly materialistic, measuring success in terms of wealth and possessions. You do have to work long and hard to accumulate all that stuff. The result of all this is that America has the strongest economy in the world, one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, the most advanced medical and health system in the world – and along with it, one of the highest rates of stress-related illness in the world.

Let me say that again, the USA has one of the highest rates of stress-related illness in the world!

Why is rest so important? For several reasons. One of the most important functions of rest is to allow us to listen to God. Often, we get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of daily life that we become deaf to the still, small voice of God. We become so busy doing things for Christ that we forget to simply be with Christ. We get tunnel vision, becoming so fixated on completing our list of assigned tasks that we have no time.

Ok, so now you know God wants us to rest but do you value times of rest? Do you plan for them, and schedule them, and protect them? Do you plan for regular times alone with the Lord? Parents, do you ensure that your children have times of rest, times when there are no demands on them from school work. or sports?

Do you plan time away with your family, time when you can be together without distractions from work, school and even church? And most importantly, are you resting in Christ? Have you given up all attempts to earn God’s love and acceptance, and have you come to trust in Christ alone for salvation?

Genesis 2:2,3 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Does God need to rest, I should think not. He’s making a point here though, do you want to be more Christ like as Men of Action?

Mark 6:30, 31 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

Jesus did not demand, nor desire, that his disciples labor to the point of exhaustion and burn-out. He knew that they needed periods of rest in order to remain strong, just as we do. Jesus said, Listen, let's get away. Let's go away to a deserted place and let's just rest for a while.

You've got to know the rest of the story: no sooner did they get there than the crowds find out about it, and they all come there, too! Oh, great, now what? Jesus didn't say, "GO AWAY!" He welcomed them, He even fed them.

There are those times in your Christian life when you're just really, really busy, and it just seems like a lot, and you try to get away to get a rest, and you go off with Jesus, and you find out the work even follows you there.
But the problem is not that we need to be doing nothing; the problem is that we need to stop doing the wrong things. That's usually what's making us weary.
It seems hard in an outward sense, not in an inward sense, when we're right with Him. When we come to Him, He doesn't just set us free from anything. He gives us an assignment. But it's a different assignment. It's not the one we would have picked. It's the one that comes from Him.

You'll find rest in the work that He gives. You will find rest for your souls. This is the promise that He gives us. I'll bet you'll agree with me, rest for your soul is far more satisfying than rest for your body.

And that my friends, is the REST of the story!

But not the end of the story…

("The Rest of story" expression/phrase used by Paul Harvey in his Radio Show)