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Sunday—the day of rest! Right?! The Lord intended that one in seven days would be a day of rest, but few of us live our lives that way and then we get stressed out and wonder why we’re so tired. Our friend Fran has been learning some needed principles about avoiding burnout.
On this Sunday, she and the kids are heading out of church when some good friends, Bob and Regina, stop them. “Hey, would you guys like to join us? We’re going to catch a quick lunch and then go to the zoo. They’ve got a baby zebra and some new snakes.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Drew screams with delight. “Let’s go, Mom.” Alice chimes in, too.
“Well, I was planning to get some sleep today. . .” she looks at Regina.
Regina quickly says, “Okay, how about you go home and rest and we’ll take the kids.”
Fran looks at them. “You’d do that?”
“Fran,” Bob says to her, “it would be our joy. You know how I loved Jim, and it’s something he would be pleased about, don’t you think? You go home and rest. We’ll see you later this afternoon.” She thanks them profusely and takes their advice. That afternoon of peace and quiet seemed like a week’s vacation. How refreshed and rejuvenated she felt. “Thank you, Lord,” she says, “for giving me some rest.”
Are you tired? Learn as Fran did that Jesus wants you to have needed times of rest. Let me share a poem that has been meaningful to me:
Dear child, God does not say today, “Be strong;”
He knows your strength is spent; He knows how long
The road has been, how weary you have grown,
For He who walked the earthly roads alone,
Each bogging lowland, and each rugged hill,
Can understand, and so He says, “Be still,
And know that I am God.” The hour is late,
And you must rest awhile, and you must wait
Until life’s empty reservoirs fill up
As slow rain fills an empty upturned cup.
Hold up you cup, dear child, for God to fill.
He only asks today that you be still.
Grace Noll Crowell
Are you tired and weary? Just turn your empty cup to God. Admit your weariness and then simply allow him to fill your cup. Nothing can fill that cup like God’s Word, so let me leave you with this priceless treasure from the Bible right straight to your tired and weary body and mind:
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:28-31).