spacious places

”Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Mark 6:31

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Rest: cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength, health, or energy

My child,

Sometimes you give me a passing glance as you rush off to tend to more “pressing” matters. I want you to come with me and rest in my presence. It is there that you will find endless refreshment. I can replenish your strength and energy. I want to fill your cup until it overflows.

I know you desire to connect with me. But our communion will be much richer, if you make a more generous, quiet space for us. I don’t want you to settle for less.

Even praiseworthy activities have the power to deplete you and your connection with me. Every day you will have to make tough choices, in order, to have the room to be refreshed in my presence. You are weary but I am not. Let me carry those burdens for you as you travel down the road of your life today.

You sometimes want to protect what is rough and rutted in the terrain of your life. You have grown accustomed to the grooves and ditches, losing sight of what life with me could be like without them. There are some things you will have to relinquish, in order, to prepare a more spacious place for me in your heart.

I am always with you. But at times, you allow the insistent pressures of your schedule to interfere with some of the most beautiful possibilities in our relationship. I don’t want you to miss out. 

You know I am the most glorious of pleasures. This morning I just want to remind you. Let me do my good work in you and you will find exquisite rest.

I love you,

Abba

My Abba,

I realize I am still over-committed. As I have depended on you to help me re-prioritize in the last few years, I think I have had a bit of success at laying some things down. But I am not in a great place with this, yet. 

Most of the commitments that remain are good things I love. When I think of releasing them, it feels like I am trying to orphan parts of my heart by the side of the road.

I, also, believe my mindset is an issue. I want to work hard and make the most of each day. But somewhere along the way, I accepted repose as idleness and idleness as a plague. That’s one reason I think when I finally let go of one commitment, I allow another to jump up to grab its place.

I laugh it off by saying, “I’ll rest in heaven.” But I do not want to hobble over the finish line carrying fifty extra pounds that you never intended for me to bear. I don’t long for you to say, “Well done, my good and exhausted servant!”

While on earth, I realize even Jesus consistently took time to rest and recharge with you. And you set the precedent in creation by resting on the seventh day. Obviously, you didn’t rest because you were not tough enough or lacked commitment. It occurs to me now, you rested because rest is sacred and vital, not sinful and a waste of time.

Please communicate with me plainly as I try to sift through this. I need for you to make clear what to lay down, when to rest, and what truly restores me.  I don’t want to invest in what poses as revitalizing but actually drains me.

Please clear the roads, fill the valleys, smooth the rough places, make straight the pathways of my heart, and lead me to a place of rest in you.

I love you,

Mollie

photo: j.pawlak

NIV