You wake up and stumbling towards the kitchen you grab for the nearest caffeinated drink perhaps of which is freshly brewed coffee. Once you’ve received your caffeine fix, you’re frantically getting ready and running off to do your daily chores and attend classes. After barely making it through your first class, you can most likely be found at the nearest coffee shop quickly grabbing yet another caffeinated beverage. We live with IVs of caffeine attached to our worn out and tired bodies. Dependent on that coffee or tea or soda that might just get you through your next class, meeting, or study session, yet only lasting long enough until you feel the edge taken away and forced to get more. Sometimes, though, no matter our intake, we still are barely making it to the night when exhausted we crash on our beds only to be awoken by our favorite song playing oh too soon a few hours later, and we must start the process all over again.
What if I was to tell you caffeine will never be enough? What then? I’ve realized that in my busy and crazy life no matter how many teas or spice chai tea lattes are consumed the busyness I have created will always catch up with me leaving me more exhausted than before. Here’s the thing though: we can’t cut out the busyness. Each meeting is for experience needed to get that job, each social gathering is vital to our sanity, and each study session or class we take will one day help us obtain our degree.
So now what? We need our busyness, but yet it’s creating our exhaustion. We’ve all tried our remedies, but those leave us more tired than before. A quick Netflix TV show, nap, or coffee always brings the result of being more tired than you were before.
Matthew 11:28-30
“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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
What if I told you through the busyness and craziness and exhaustion of our lives there is a gentle whisper telling us to rest in His presence? There is a soft voice telling us to be still. Would you believe me? I mean I just said we couldn’t cut out the busyness, yet now I’m saying to be still. A little contradictory don’t you think? Well what if I’m saying to give up the stress, anxiety, and exhaustion that comes with our crazy lives to God and instead rest in His all-consuming peace? Yes, we will always be busy with something, but we can choose how we compensate our lack of sleep and overwhelming sense of being on the edge of losing all sanity. When coffee just isn’t enough, we can realize that there is a God bigger than any caffeine fix we will ever need, and when we give over our burdened souls to Him, then we can find rest and comfort from our daily struggles.
Next time you wake up feeling more exhausted than before, take time to call to God. Take a few minutes to give over you busy day to Him and rest in his amazing presence. Your day might be hard nonetheless but at least you’ve now rest with an all-powerful God who can take these burdens and ease the stress.
