No So Fast There, My Friends!

With the arrival of spring, many of us are emerging from our wintry ‘hibernation’ and venturing out for travel, favorite warm-weather pastimes, gardening, following our children’s or grandchildren’s sports, or just enjoying a walk in the sun. After months of relative inactivity, we’re ready to hit the fast-forward button for a frenzy of activity.

That’s great, and for the outdoorsy types, it’s about time, right? Hiking, boating, swimming, golf, tennis, pickleball, ATV riding, paddleboarding, or whatever your favorite pursuit may be – you’ve got the green light! But first, a word or two of caution.

 

In our haste to ‘grab all the gusto’ (to recall an old TV commercial), we can race right past the important in our pursuit for the interesting and entertaining. Charles Hummel wrote about this in his little book, The Tyranny of the Urgent. In it he talked about our many unfinished tasks, unanswered letters, unvisited friends, unwritten articles, and other things not done. Wouldn’t a 30-hour day be nice?

 

In actuality, adding more hours to the day probably wouldn’t make much difference. Without proper priorities to help us manage the clamor that surrounds us, the urgent ‘urgencies’ of the moment always tend to squeeze out the truly important. We’d just find more things to try to get done, more interruptions, no matter how many additional hours we could add to the span of a single day.

 

Recognizing this problem, decades ago a fellow named Wilferd Arlan Peterson wrote a poem called “Slow Me Down, Lord.” Here are excerpts from it:

“Slow me down, Lord.

Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.

Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time…

 

Teach me the art of taking minute vacations – of slowing down to look at a flower,

To chat with a friend, 

To pat a dog, 

To read a few lines from a good book.

 

Remind me each day of the fable of the hare and the tortoise, 

That I may know that the race is not always to the swift – 

That there is more to life than increasing its speed….”

 

What a thought: “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” No one was more aware of this than the Lord Jesus Christ, whose “to-do” list eclipsed any that we could ever compile. He healed the sick and crippled, gave sight to the blind, cast out demons, raised the dead, calmed storms, fed the hungry, ministered to the poor, and most important, preached God’s message of redemption and reconciliation to small crowds and multitudes. All within the brief span of three years.

 

Despite the incessant demands on His time, Jesus always found the necessary time to rest, whether in a storm-tossed boat (Mark 4:37-38), a quiet place with His disciples (John 6:31), or the wilderness by Himself (Matthew 14:13). Even God incarnate became weary as a man. His earthly ministry was relatively short, but Jesus did not ignore the need for rest.

 

Psalm 23, well-known as ‘the shepherd’s psalm,’ pictures a flock of sheep under the protective care of their shepherd, helping us to recognize God as our own Shepherd. It says, “He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me besides quiet waters, He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:2-3). Sheep, a skittish, nervous lot, do poorly under stress, so their shepherd must ensure they find places for sufficient rest. We’re not as different from wooly sheep as we might believe.

 

This is why rest is emphasized throughout the Scriptures. Isaiah 40:31 assures us, “Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not become faint.” No matter what season we’re in, the demands and pressures surrounding us can quickly wear us down if we’re not careful. Hence our need, as the poem suggests, to pray, “Slow me down, Lord.”

 

Wherever He went, Jesus found throngs of troubled, weighed-down people. In giving His message of hope, both for the present and for eternity, the Lord offered this promise: “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 souls” (Matthew 11:28-29).

 

So, as you embark on your race for fun and frolic, don’t forget to take a rest. Rest in the Lord.

Winning the War Over Weariness

Eagles, depicted in this statue at Lookout Mountain's Rock City,
soar above the chaos below them and are magnificent to behold.

Have you ever felt weary? Not just the kind of tired that’s dispelled by a night’s sleep, but a deep, inner weariness that lingers even after a brief nap, long weekend, or relaxing vacation?

Most of us have probably experienced this at some point in our lives. Maybe you’re there right now. One of my favorite Bible verses acknowledges this: “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). So weariness obviously isn’t a new phenomenon.

Causes of weariness are many. Here are just several examples: The seemingly unending Presidential race and its continual haranguing, demeaning and posturing. The ever-present threat of terrorism and where it might manifest itself next. Civil and racial strife that’s escalated at an alarmingly rate. Relentless bickering over controversies both large and small. Continual gloom and doom reporting by the media, with little being offered to encourage or uplift. It seems our dear old USA has become a “dry and weary land” all of its own.

Then there are the burdensome everyday issues of life we confront that are so…daily. It might just be the weight of day to day household chores that never go away – get them done today, and tomorrow you have to do them all over again. The joys of parenthood tempered by the worries and frustrations of raising kids in the 21^st century and hoping they’ll turn out all right. Going to work every day, trying to earn a livelihood but never seeming to get ahead. As someone has said, “The harder I try and the faster I go, the behinder I get.”

Even doing good things, the right things, can become wearisome. It’s become commonplace to hear of a respected public official, popular entertainer or prominent CEO resigning under the weight of responsibility and expectations. Thousands of pastors leave the pulpit each year, worn down by the demands of their ministry.

When we find ourselves stranded in the state of Weary, we have several alternatives: We can quit, declaring we’re fed up, tired as all get-out, and won’t take it anymore. We can try going into denial, sucking it up and putting on the proverbial happy-face. We can grumble and complain to anyone who’ll listen. Or we can turn to the Lord, seeking strength from Him that we can’t muster on our own.

Jesus understood this well when He offered this assurance to His followers: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

When we read this, it might be tempting in our moments of exasperation to respond, “Yeah, but You don’t understand, Jesus. You don’t know what I’m dealing with here.” Then we read this reminder that He does indeed understand: “For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:3).

Every day people quit – marriages, jobs, projects, or passions they have fervently pursued – because results they had hoped for haven’t materialized. All that effort, they conclude with resignation, expended for nothing. Sadly, too often they quit when they’re only a day, or one more attempt, from realizing their dreams.

This is why the Scriptures admonish us, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). Another passage echoes that promise: “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). In other less sanctified terms, keep on keepin’ on!

So if weariness has become an unwelcome but constant companion in your life, consider this: “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:30-31). Are you ready to soar?