We’re going to take a quick look at a passage from the Sermon on the Mount today, that we actually explored several weeks ago as part of that series.  You can find it here: http://bit.ly/14LRCtP

Matthew 6:28-34 ESV says:

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Jesus uses a good analogy – beautiful flowers are clothed in God-given beauty.  But our human tendency is to see beauty as the product of our own hard work – we need to toil and spin if we want to be beautiful.  We have invented entire industries of fashion, consmetics, pharmaceuticals devoted to helping us work for our beauty.

We regularly delude ourselves into thinking it’s all about us, from our beauty to our purpose in this world, and that can make it very hard to rest.

It’s so easy to feel guilty – I didn’t do as much as I should have last week, I forgot this, or I am so not ready for Monday.  We always think we should be doing more.  It can be particularly hard for entrepreneurs – every sale makes or breaks the company, every contact could be a sale.

So we stay up at night, or check our phone constantly, or just have our mind on work when it could be resting.

True rest means finding ways to put that kind of worry and guilt aside.  Tomorrow, we’ll look at one more inner change that helps., then next week we’ll look at some practical hints, but for many this looks like prayer, some kind of different activity, and turning the phone off.

Question: What do you tend to worry about when you’re resting?  Do you feel guilty about resting, or taking vacation?

Ryan Sim - August 24, 2015

Monday - A New Idea - Finding Rest

Work and Rest

It can be very hard to find rest in our world. Between a Blackberry, kids, the home phone and social media, it can be hard to focus on anything, much less rest. One study found that people who are interrupted by technology score 20 percent lower on a standard cognition test. A second demonstrated that some students, even when on their best behavior, can't concentrate on homework for more than two minutes without distracting themselves by using social media or writing an email. We always wonder what we’re missing, what we should be doing, even when we’re supposed to be resting. With technology, we don’t have to suppress that – we can always know, we can always be available. People say it’s harder and harder to unplug. Even as I wrote this, I found myself turning to all kinds of distractions – it’s always when I try to focus on writing that I decide some amazing new change needs to be made to the app or social media. This makes it hard to work and rest – I’m constantly blending the two, and doing neither well as a result. For this year’s vacation, I committed to turning my smartphone off, and only checking in once a day to make sure things are running smoothly with Redeem the Commute. I’ll have to physically make sure my phone isn’t around, because I know I’ll be tempted otherwise. But that isn’t a foolproof formula – I can always go get my smartphone if I get too curious. Find rest can’t just be about strategies – because our problem is inside us. There is something inside me that is still wanting to check email, check the news, etc. We’ll explore what that is, and what to replace it with this week. Question: How do you “unplug” and rest? What strategies do you use?

From Series: "Work and Rest"

Just in time for summer's blend of work and rest, Redeem the Commute is starting a new series of daily challenges to help busy people restore life to the commuting lifestyle. This seven week series will look at the meaning and purpose of work, rest, and ancient practices that have helped followers of Jesus to keep the two in perspective and balance for centuries.

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