Thursday, April 10, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Rest
When, like last night, I am so tired I can’t quite stand up, when I get dizzy just taking a few steps and have to stop for a moment, I think of Psalm 90.
Like the new grass of the morning, in the morning I spring up new, but by evening I am dry and withered, and I fly away.
I know I’m not the only one, not by a long shot. We all belong to this world and our bodies wear out. In time our bodies made by God wear out sooner than later, one day at a time. I think this is the way of all flesh, not something to be ashamed of, but I do want to manage my life a little differently when I don’t have as much energy to give it.
So one thing I can do is have a shorter list each day and each week. I work at that and sometimes succeed. When I’ve done everything on the list, my mind and body take a deep breath. Ah! I can rest.
But lists can get far too long in my mind even if they are short on the notebook sheet. All I want to do, all I think I have to do, whirls around me. I stand in the middle of a ferocious circus of creatures circling, crying out for my attention.
Reading today’s verses, which speak of covenant-making between Abram and our Father, I think how Abraham (his new name) grew old and older and still, no son. Surely as age caught up with him, he too was exhausted often, needing to sit when he had been standing, as he waited on God’s promise to be fulfilled. I imagine his home tent, reclining on a couch while Sarah, who is just as old as he is, prepares their supper.
Just a short nap, Sarah.
Another thing I have gotten better at is those afternoon naps. Sometimes the nap is short, but always it rejuvenates me for a few hours. That’s enough. It’s just that yesterday my responsibilities went on past those few hours into the evening. I knew the plan, but my preparation was inadequate.
Talking to our son, who is younger than me (!), I realize this planning to avoid exhaustion is something we all do. Or at least we all need to do it.
As Lent comes to an end next week, I remember the simple verse toward the end of Psalm 46.
Be still, and know that I am God.
In our spiritual direction classes we worked that verse often by settling into silence, and rest, between the words.
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
When Jesus calls out the Pharisees for refusing to recognizing his relationship with his Father, he reminds them of Abraham’s everlasting covenant with Yahweh.
Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad.”
So the Jews said to him,
“You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”
So they picked up stones to throw at him.
I don’t need to hurry and accomplish anything, or regret how little I’ve already done. I belong to this world. My ability to reach out to heaven is limited. The thresholds I might reach don’t match the goals I strive for. Jesus invites me to recognize that always I will be exhausted by this when I fail to know him. Come unto me, he says, and I will give rest. I will do it. Because I am not of this world. Come and follow me.
Whoever keeps my word will never see death.
(Genesis 17, Psalm 105, Psalm 95, John 8)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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