For we who have believed entered that rest as he has said “As I swore in my wrath. They shall never enter my rest” … so then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His.
We tend to desire lesser things than His rest – the simple delight of enjoying His presence.
Keeping it real, I’d like to tell you the true and somewhat pathetic story of Deanna VanDebrake and the terrible horrible no good very bad day…. just yesterday, in fact.
About 1 am last night the sirens went off. The wind was howling. A tornado warning was going off on all our phones. Our shelter turned literally upside down. It was quite reminiscent of the day I had earlier.
5 am. Ahhh the quiet. I love early mornings. I open the Bible, sip some tea, journal, pray, ask the Lord about His plans for the day. I savor this time. But this was not that day. Tuesday April 27, I had to get to Wal-Mart before the crazies are let loose, which is usually around 9 am.
I had to come home and organize the pantry and refrigerator because I’ve been gone and things feel disorderly. I can’t talk to Jesus until this is settled. Good grief! Do we really need 17 different chicken wing dipping sauces?
Okay, now I am ready to make tea, open my Bible …. but my head being the incredibly accurate weather forecaster that it is, is announcing there is going to be some kind of terrific storm. So I’m out of commission and tell my girl I’ll take her to urgent care when the Tylenol kicks in. Grrrr. I have too much to do to be incapacitated.
To urgent care we go. I’ll make chai tea and spend time with the Lord as soon as I get home.
We get home, make my girl tea, soup, fix my husband some lunch and start laundry. Now it’s finally time, but wait, I have to make my bed. It looks too chaotic in my room. I can’t talk to Jesus in this mess. So, I go to grab some sheets. Wait, why is there one green fitted sheet and one grey sheet? Who does this? And now I am reduced to a teen girl’s mushroom sheets. Mushrooms, really?
Okay, finally it’s about 2 pm, almost ready to sit down and I hear “Moooom, mom”. My sweet girl got sick everywhere and clearly she is not being drafted for the Lakers anytime soon. And in the midst of cleaning that, I hear an, “Oh, by the way, there are ants everywhere.” They are on the inside of one of my people’s rooms. I remember quite vividly a conversation about having water in the new house. We have ants and don’t want them on the inside. “It’s okay, we’re all adults, that won’t happen.” And yet I am the lucky one who gets to clean it up.
Finally, all is clean. It’s 4 pm. Well, chai is out. It’s too late for that. I’ll spend time with Jesus after dinner.
I go to make dinner, and the noodles were in the pantry upside down. I give it a little shake to see if I have enough, and all of it, every last noodle, comes flying out of the box, as I am quite sure I’m in the process of losing my own.
To the store I go. I get back. I go to chop an onion, and no way. It’s mushy. Why are we keeping mushy onions? Off to get a good onion. Dinner is finally ready at 8:30 pm. I’m exhausted. I’d like to spend time with the Lord, but watching Lemony Snicket’s series of unfortunate events, somehow, ironically, sounds more appealing.
Today was different. I am thankful He still extends an invitation to enter His rest. I spent time with Him, reached out to some friends for fellowship, going to play a game with my girl. Things aren’t organized the way I like them. I didn’t do my normal routine. The weeds are sky high and my errands are on hold until tomorrow, but today is somehow sweeter, more peaceful than yesterday.
He is still with us in the terrible, horrible no good very bad days, but He delights in us enjoying Him and the sweet little moments that pass so quickly. We indeed tend to go for the lesser things, when He has great, amazing plans for us and our day – Rest. Resting In Him.