We live in a very tense, uptight and fast paced world filled with hurry...
A Tacoma, Washington newspaper carried the story of Tattoo the basset hound a while back. Tattoo didn’t intend to go for an evening run, but when his owner shut the dog’s leash in the car door and took off for a drive – with Tattoo still outside the vehicle, he had no choice. Motorcycle officer Terry Filbert notice a passing vehicle with something dragging behind it. He commented that the poor basset hound was, “picking them up and putting them down as fast as he could.” He chased the car to a stop, and Tattoo was rescued. But not before the dog had reached a top speed of 25 miles per hour, falling down and rolling over several times.
Too many of us are living our lives like Tattoo, picking them up and putting them down as fast as we can – rolling around & feeling dragged through life.
Time magazine noted that back in the 60’s, expert testimony was given to a Senate sub-committee on time management. They predicted that advances in technology would radically change how many hours a week people worked. They forecasted that the average American would be working 22 hours a week within 20 years. “The great challenge,” the experts said, “would be figuring out what to do with all the excess time.” Over 50 years later, after major advances in technology – how many of us are wondering what to do with all the excess time on our hands?
Our world has become the world of the Red Queen of Alice and Wonderland: “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”
How many of us feel like that? Let’s take a group quiz to see how many of us are being dragged through life. Fill in the blanks:
I’m ready to throw in the…
I’m at the end of my…
I’m just a bundle of…
My life is falling…
I’m at my wit’s…
I feel like resigning from the human…
Apparently we’re all experiencing the rat race. Just when you thought you were getting ahead, along come faster rats. But remember, he who wins the rat race is still a rat.
We need to learn how to experience rest. If all we needed was physical rest we can always take a nap. If we needed only emotional rest, we can always take a vacation. But where can we find spiritual rest? How can we obtain relief regarding the deepest issues of life at the deepest level of our hearts.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Jesus spoke to this very issue 2000 years ago in Matthew 11:28-30. This passage contains 3 commands from Jesus that lead to rest.
I will experience rest for my soul as I obey Jesus’ command of…
1. COME TO ME “Come…all…and I will give…”
Jesus regularly invited people to come to Him to meet their needs.
NOTICE: What Jesus did NOT say, “Come to church to find rest." Christianity begins with meeting Christ personally. Going to McDonalds does not make you a hamburger. Going into a garage doesn’t make you a car. Going to church does not make you a Christian (you must meet Christ personally).
I will experience rest for my soul as I also obey Jesus’ command of…
2. TAKE MY YOKE (upon you)
YOKE: “a type of harness that connects a pair of oxen.” A pair of connected oxen was typically called a yoke of oxen.
Used metaphorically to refer to submission to a teacher. In NT times the phrase, “to take the yoke of” was used by rabbi’s to refer to “becoming a submitted pupil of a teacher”
Jesus said that His yoke is easy “well fitted.” It fits the need. Rules and religion don’t fit the need for personal relationship. His yoke is easy compared to man made religious yokes. His burden is light compared to the burden of human effort. Jesus’ sign outside his carpenter shop, “My yokes fit well!”
I will experience rest for my soul as I also obey Jesus’ command of…
3. LEARN FROM ME
His third command is to learn from Him (are you open to learn?).
All of us are ignorant, just on different subjects. We come, take up His yoke, the process of learning begins.
1 Peter 5:7 Give all your worries to him, because he cares about you (NCV).
One day a man went by to see a farmer who was plowing his field with a team of oxen. The man noticed that one of the animals was seemingly a little bigger than the other so he asked him about it. The response from the farmer was very interesting. He said that the big animal was an older animal that was well trained and the smaller one was a young animal that was new to the yoke. The man went on to inquire as to why he put them together and this is the answer that He got,
“Well you see, it’s like this. That older ox is the best ox that I have ever had; he knows his way around the field. The reason I put the younger one with him is so the older, more knowledgeable ox could teach him how to plow. If I never put them together the younger one would never learn. By himself the younger ox would pull himself to death, but together he learns to cooperate with and rest in the strength of the older ox.”
Does your life feel like the ox whose pulling himself to death. Rest comes from obedience to Jesus’ commands. COME to Me, TAKE My yoke upon you, LEARN from Me.
Hebrews 4: 11 So we must make every effort to enter that place of rest. Then no one will be lost by following the example of those who refused to obey. (GWT).
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