during Ukraine I read a couple blogs by my friend Danny. he was responding a question about how to get the most of your world race experience, but really in that answer was not only how to get the most out of the world race so much as how to get the most out of life. you can check those blogs out here and here.
in the second one he talks about how saying we're tired is the lamest excuse ever, and that resonated because admitedly, after a while of this world race living the phrase "I'm just tired" was becoming a familar one to me. I was physically, emotionally, and spiritually tired… but why? I could come up with a myriad of circumstantial reasons and justifications for why I was tired, and honestly no one would argue them because it's easy enough to see how this lifestyle could make you tired. here's the thing though… that's weaksauce. It is not living in the strength of the Lord and it is not overcoming anything, it is in every way living for comfort and complacency. And I was doing that even out here… maybe more so out here because I felt like I was more justified in feeling tired.
the Lord threw some serious conviction my way through Danny about all that. The truth is that I was tired, but that's becaus I wasn't fully seeking and relying on the Lord's rest to counter act that. It is inevitable that I will get tired in this life… whether that's while I'm on the world race or while I'm back in kc, mo… but that in no way means it's okay for me to just be tired and to rely on faulty methods of resting.
tuning out, watching movies, just listening to music, surfing facebook, skyping with people from home, reading a good book, even reading the bible… is not rest unless I am no tuning out but tuning into the Lord through it.
I was tired because I hadn't really tuned into the Lord in order recieve more lfie, more enegry.
there is no way I can expect, or you can expect, to live life to the FULL with Him.
there is no way I can expect to serve Him with only portions of Him.
I think in a subconcious way I've lived with the Lord the same way I used to live with my car. I'd run on the fuel I had in it until I was basically on empty, because gas was expensive and it came at cost. I do that with God too… I get something so good and fueling from Him and then I run on it until I am basically empty because in a way I know that His rest comes at a cost too. To enter into it I have to set myself aside. But how beautiful that setting aside really is. Ha I remember driving to school from home so often my last year there and these moments when i would stop at a quick trip right outside platte city being one that I looked forward to… I'd fuel up, grab a coffee or orange juice, and a delicious qt donut. But even though I loved those moments.. when I was the highway it never seemed the effiecient to me to stop there and get gas, because if I could just make it 15-25 more minutes I could be home. It was always a guessing game with the question: do I think I can make it home with out quite running out?
Here's the obvious though: if i did run out, that would have caused me so much more delay and stress than if I just stopped, filled up, and grabbed a treat along the way. And not only that but once I got home it didn't change the fact that eventually I would have to fill up.
With only about a month and half left we are currently in our "home stretch" time of the race and in some ways I've thought of the race this way for a while. "do I think I can make it home with out quite running out?"
its dumb.
it leaves me tired and restless.
That's changing though, because I've realized everything that I just wrote about… and when I realize things like that I can't just keep going on that way. I want to live this life, on the world race and on afterwards, to the FULL and I can only do that by "pulling off the highway and filling up". I can only do that by tuning into my Father in Heaven and listening to what He's saying. When I realized all of this though it stirred up this question: what does the Lord's rest even look like, and how do I get that? One of Danny's suggestions with that question was to read some scrilpture.. solid advice… and in particular to read Deuteronomy. So, I've been doing that and one thing I've learned so far is that the Lord's rest is directly correlated to remembering Him. So dirrectly correlated that in the ten commandents, the commandment about keeping the Sabbath day end by telling the people to remember all that the Lord did for them, taking them out of Egpyt. Over and over again in deuteronomy the Lord's people are told to remember Him.
Part of resting in the Lord is remembering who He is and what He has done.
I've gotten to do that quite a bit lately, and have taken up the practice of intentionally recalling all the things He has already done for me in the moments and times that I feel as if "I've come to my end". And I find that in those moments… just remembering what the Lord has done, lifts my spirit to His and gives me a peace, a calm, a rest that wasn't there moments before. The circumstances don't need to change, my heart does, it's focus does, and remembering helps bring on that change.
SO: I want to enter into the Lord's rest with you! I want to remember all that the Lord has done for us over the past year, month, week, day, hour of our lives. I want to hear from you about what God has done for you.
Remember it and find rest in who He is and all that He does.
If you've read this blog, leave a comment, telling a story about what He has done for you.
and rejoice for it is good.
He is good.
He is God.
