“Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:29
How many of us have planned a vacation? We work hard, incessantly looking at the calendar, dreaming of the day that vacation will finally begin. We sigh to ourselves, “Soon, soon we will take a break and rest.” Then, the long-awaited days arrive and whether you are on those beautiful beaches, in that city that you wanted to visit so much or you have stayed on vacation at home, only to find that still, when our vacation is over, we need a break.
We don’t fully feel replenished as we expected to be. Why is that so? Because our mind and our soul never experienced true rest. Because when we arrive at the long-awaited and long-planned destination, we worry about how we look in our swimsuit, we worry about what the other people there will think, we worry about whether we plan the right activities for the family, we think about all the work that is waiting for us when we get home.
We worry about posting that perfect picture in social media, we argue with the children and our partner because it seems that they did not read the “memo” on how they should behave during a vacation, where everyone should be happy and carefree.
In Matthew 11:29 Jesus tells us, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” If we find that true rest is slipping out of our lives, it is probably because we are not consciously and intentionally accepting Christ’s invitation to us to follow him, obey him, and receive the inheritance he offers us.
The fundamental reason we feel exhausted and overwhelmed is because of the idols in our hearts. Subconsciously (or consciously) we think there is something wrong with us. This thought makes us want to value ourselves and give meaning to our existence through what we do and our roles in life: work, reputation, motherhood, our body/health, etc. We think we will eventually be redeemed if we execute these roles well enough and expose them so others can see “how well” we are doing. In other words, these roles, which are gifts from God, become our God, our idols.
God, in Genesis at creation, creates human beings in his image and likeness. When creating it he exclaimed, “This is very good.” We have the approval that matters! Not only that, but God shows us a model of rest. Rest reflects joy in the product of our work! On the seventh day God rested by rejoicing at what he had created, not looking for flaws or ways he felt short in his job.
Are you rejoicing in the fruit of your labor?