Resting with Purpose

It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.

- Psalm 127:2

I am busier than ever these days. I long for rest. But I don't just want a vacation. I don't want to get away from it all. I want to tend to all the things competing for my attention at this moment. I want to devour the "bread of anxious toil" so I can say that I am in control.

The pursuit of control is such vanity. No matter how early I rise nor how late I rest the works of my hands will not last. Yet God says to me that he gives sweet sleep that the bread of anxious toil can never offer. This sleep comes from the knowledge that I am his beloved. I rest in God's arms safe and secure like my newborn daughter rests in her mother's embrace. I rest knowing that my rest will not be in vain for God is at work in me. He has fulfilled all that I need and desire in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. He assures me that all that I am to do flows from this rest in my Savior. I rest to work, not work to rest.

Thank God for this Gospel rest for my tired and weary soul; this Sabbath rest from my works (as an imitation of God's own rest from his own work of creation) redeemed for me on the cross where Jesus declared "it is finished!"

Psalm 139

My wife gave birth to our third child (Lois) this past Thursday. She and the baby were discharged from the hospital yesterday and home has been a place of wonder, exhaustion, and sweet affection. As my wife and I transition to a zone defense (like a champ my wife is playing with injuries right now) to navigate two toddlers and an infant competing for our attention we are being continually stretched and humbled. Through it all we are grateful that our Father in heaven does not tire or slumber. More thoughts to come on the miracle of life. For now, I will leave you with Psalm 139.

O LORD, you have searched me and
known me!
You know when I sit down and when I
rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying
down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it
altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your
presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are
there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, "Surely the darkness shall
cover me,
and the light about me be night,"
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for the darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my
mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you.
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the
earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of
them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there were none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts,
O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would cound them, they are more
than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

Oh that you would slay the wicked,
O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious
intent;
your enemies take your name in vain!
Do I not hate those who hate you,
O LORD?
And do I not loathe those who rise up
against you?
I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way
in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting!