The Effort of Rest part 1
The effort of rest. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? Well, let's spend a few days unwrapping this concept. Because (I've said this many times before) my pastor taught me to preach something until my heart is empty of it. And I can't, yet, get off this idea of maximum effort. As always, I believe love IS the maximum effort you can give--giving everything you have and everything you are. You literally can't give more than that. How could you? But while we're putting forth all of this effort... it HAS to come from a posture of rest. The effort is GIVING what we have, not GETTING something we don't have. If you're trying to get something, it doesn't matter how hard you try. You reach for the carrot, but the stick moves just out reach. There's always one thing you lack, when it comes to the man-centered, performance based relgion. And that one thing that you lack--and will always lack, when you're trying to earn something that can't be earned--is rest. Look at Hebrews 4:11 so I can build the foundation for this Rant series before I get too far into it. In the New International Version, "Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience." And, yes, I did pick that translation because it uses the word "effort." The KJV has the even more taboo (at least in religious circles) word, "labor." Labor to enter into rest. Which makes it seem like we do the work, then we can rest. But that's the trap we fall into so many times: We try to finish a work that is already finished. The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. There was never a time when the work WASN'T finished. And, yes, it took Jesus giving His life for us and to us on the cross for the manifestation and fulness of that finished work to come to light, but it was never in doubt. And it was never up to you to finish it. In fact, in the good old King James Version the word "labor" in Hebrews 4:11 is number 4704 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "to use speed." Basically--hurry up and enter into the rest that is available to you. Stop trying to earn that gift that can't be earned. That gift that has already been freely given. That gift that must simply be received and released. And that, to me, is where the effort really comes in. Because God's love seems too good to be true. It really does. That someone would be willing to lay their life down for us... and not because they wanted anything FROM us, but simply because they wanted the best FOR us... that boggles the mind. We don't think we're worth it. Because I've been right there with me for the very worst things I've ever done. And you've been right there with you. We know what we're capable of, and it isn't always something to brag about. But even when it isn't, God love you. Unconditionally. Not because of what you do, but because of who you are. And because of who HE is. Because the work IS finished. And now we can rest in the loving arms of our heavenly Father. We can let God love the hell out of us, and then we can love the hell out of each other with that same love that we are loved with!