Reach Out

Rest: it means to cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength.  I do not know about you, but I know that I do not “rest” well.  I sleep great at night, but that is probably because I go so long with out resting all the time.  I am eager to find out the entirety of what the Bible has to say about rest, its importance for us, and how to do it.

The next mention of rest comes from Job 3, as Job is anguishing in his loss of family and possessions [I will be using the Message paraphrase]:

Why didn’t I die at birth, my first breath out of the womb my last? Why were there arms to rock me, and breasts for me to drink from? I could be resting in peace right now, asleep forever, feeling no pain…Why wasn’t I stillborn and buried with all the babies who never saw light, Where the wicked no longer trouble anyone and bone-weary people get a long-deserved rest?  Prisoners sleep undisturbed, never again to wake up to the bark of the guards. The small and the great are equals in that place, and slaves are free from their masters.

Why does God bother giving light to the miserable, why bother keeping bitter people alive, Those who want in the worst way to die, and can’t, who can’t imagine anything better than death, Who count the day of their death and burial the happiest day of their life? What’s the point of life when it doesn’t make sense, when God blocks all the roads to meaning?  Instead of bread I get groans for my supper, then leave the table and vomit my anguish.  The worst of my fears has come true, what I’ve dreaded most has happened. My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed. No rest for me, ever – death has invaded life. [v. 11-13, 16-26]

Bad days come and go like the mist in the morning. What do we have on this earth that is worth our while, that will remain when the sun fades and this world melts away?  Job had come face to face with this reality.  And he was a good man: he honored God, he honored God for his family in the midst of their sin, and he was more than cognizant that God was the only power worth recognizing.

But the pain proved to be to great in the midst of his loss.  He recognized that this is what death looks like: vacancy in the middle of a city’s celebration.  While the rest of the world went on, his remained broken.  Though Job knew and recognized God as the one true God, he longed for rest to come to him, for peace to return to his home.

It is interesting to me that we do not hear anything about Job after these trials – life goes on.  I have been processing the reality of every day life versus the intimacy of every day grace.  Job points it out perfectly: “What is the point of life when it doesn’t make sense, when God blocks all roads to meaning?”

I am coming to the daily conclusion that what I do does not matter as much as how much I give to God.  And this is difficult because I do not get God most of the time.  I do not understand 1/1,000,000 of his nature, purpose, or life.  And the list goes on from there.  How do you embrace a foreign, mysterious thing such as God?

To embrace God in his mystery is to experience rest and peace amid turmoil and tribulation.  I wish I could make it clearer – but I do not even understand that concept passed simply doing what I think it is to embrace God.

I have no clear answers.  I have no formulas or perfect reasons for why we engage in this God.  I only know that he is faithful and responds when we reach out.

In the middle of your pain, reach out – that’s what Job did.