Conclusion – The Nobility of Resting
There is a time when faithful servants must rest, and they have a role to play, because after all, someone had to stay behind in the city, didn’t they, with the baggage? I think about those of us as we get older, we’re not able to physically able to do what we once did, and we wonder if being with the baggage is noble. And the answer from the shepherd king is yes. I declare it, as a way of being in the world for us, this is our rule. And I think about those of us who have known mental and emotional fatigue and disablement, and we wonder if we matter, and with the shepherd king, he says yes, you do. It is a way of being among us. In our organizational culture, this is our way. We will not fight one another. We will recognize each person’s role with the amount of work that they can do and the rest that they need. And then he says, all of us, join in this spoil, because God has done it. Are you emotionally fatigued? It is ugly prayer that you need. All the physical rest that you desire will not bring the rest you need if it’s emotional fatigue. It will help, it is important, but you’re going to have to ugly pray. Have you ever thought or noticed it like this, like I’ll think to myself in the fall, Midwestern fall, leaves turn different colors and things like that, we eat foods called chili, we watch football. And I’ll think to myself, if I just watch a football game, I’ll rest. And even if my team wins, the game ends, and I am not rested. Even if I laid there physically and did nothing and just put food in my mouth, not chili of course, that would be difficult, but you know, you know what I mean? It’s because whatever’s troubling me internally requires strengthening in the Lord through ugly prayer and there’s no way around it. No amount of video games for younger men, no amount of work in the yard, no amount of physical tinkering in the garage, no amount of taking a nap from the kids, no amount of whatever it is is going to do it, I must ugly pray. And others of us, when we’re sick, we need to rest. And when we’re physically exhausted, we need to stay back by the brook of Besor while others go on. We have to sit this one out. So that, in the future, we’re there again. So that, even if we’re never there again in the future, we know we’ve been given a role to play by the shepherd king, who makes us lie down. And we make it a rule, and a statute, for the culture of our family, the culture of our organization, the culture of our soul, that it is no foolish thing to rest. It is wise. And I’m guessing that after the celebration that took place David slept and slept without guilt, and just slept until he woke up with no alarm, and gave thanks to God. What we’ve done is just oriented ourselves to the provision of rest and the rhythms of work from the shepherd king. This is the same shepherd who foreshadows the true one who came, who sat by a well at noon because he was tired, who slept so soundly in a boat around five o’clock in the afternoon as a 30-something, that no amount of storm and adult shouting could wake him. Let’s pray. Lord, we ask that you would take Your word and these meditations upon who You are and You would gather them up, and that You would kindly come and feed our souls and make much of it. We ask it in Your precious name in Christ, Amen.
