Rest

What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 2:22-23)

Have you ever had nights like the Teacher describes, where everything from the day just sort of swirls around in your head and you simply cannot find rest? You can’t sleep, you hear the clock ticking the minutes by and it seems like the night will never end. The things of the day can easily invade our sleep. Sometimes I have some very strange dreams as my mind tries to put all the things of the day together! We worry about things we said or didn’t say, what might happen at work, the trouble our kids have found themselves in…and on and on the list could go. The Teacher could be right…even at night our minds do not rest, and so we get nothing for all the work and labor we put in.

But is that the really the only path we can follow? Is there no hope? Or is it possible we serve a savior who came, at least in part, to give us rest. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). I’ve long loved the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases that verse: “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” (The Message). Doesn’t that sound inviting, desirable even? I want a “real rest,” don’t you?

Peter, who spent three years learning how to receive the rest Jesus gives, once wrote this: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). And this is not a man whose life was free from trouble. Peter found himself in all sorts of trouble because of his allegiance to Jesus, and eventually he would find himself martyred (according to tradition, he ws crucified upside-down) for his faith. But he knew the rest that comes from trusting in Jesus. He learned to “cast all his cares” back toward Jesus, who promised to take care of them. I’d bet Peter slept well at night!

The Teacher was worn out because he was trusting largely in himself to solve all the problems of his life, perhaps even all the problems of the world. Jesus promises a life where, when we give our worries and our needs over to him, when we trust him to take care of what we need, we will find rest. Which life do you want? Which life sounds more…restful?