One of the most important things that I ever learned from Graham Cooke was the value of rest. Not naps, although I love naps now that I’m older, but rest. Rest isn’t about being still, although it results in much inner stillness. Rest isn’t about not doing anything. On the contrary, I can be very active, work very hard, and still be at rest. Rest, says Graham, wearies the enemy, makes him tired and dispirited. Rest is one of our greatest weapons in spiritual warfare.
Rest is the result of our awareness of the goodness, the righteousness, the faithfulness, the mercy, the steadfastness, the provision of God. Or perhaps more accurately, rest is the result of our decision to trust in all those attributes of God. Sometimes for me that means trusting in them even when my awareness is sorely limited.
Striving is the exact opposite of rest. Striving is the result of our decision not to trust in those attributes of God that we have heard of but may not sense in the moment. I like to call striving the fruit of the “yes, but…” bug. Yes, God is good, but doesn’t He help those who helps themselves? (By the way, that’s not in the Bible anywhere.)…. Yes, God is provider but I still have to…. Yes, God is faithful, but….
With that awful, tiny, three letter word “but” we give ourselves permission to hold on to our anxieties, to strive. To secure our own futures.
That’s what we do when we strive. We work “in order that…” We work in order that our needs might be met, or we work in order that our children’s needs might be met. Or we work in order that the needs of the poor might be met. Striving leaves us breathless and exhausted.
But rest works “because….” Rest works because God is provider, and we are rich with energy and resources to give. Rest works because we are full and need to spill some of that richness out onto someone else. Rest leaves us refreshed and enthusiastic about the next thing.
Rest is about confidence. Striving is about anxiety.
During Lent, we hear an awful lot of talk about sin. Striving is at the root of all sin.
Yes, that’s what I said. All sin.
Let’s look back at the origins of sin and see how striving became the engine for the sin that drove us out of paradise…
In Genesis three we see Eve (and Adam, who stood close by) confronted by the serpent. In verses 4 and 5 we read,
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Eve has already pointed out to the serpent that they are permitted every tree of the garden, that only this one is forbidden. She is resting in the goodness and provision of God until she believes the lie that God cannot be trusted, that God withholds that which she really needs…
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
And suddenly she and Adam (no guys, you don’t get a pass on this one!) decide that they know better what they need than God does. This is the place where disobedience finds its root. They never saw before they believed the lie “that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.” (v. 6) Until that moment what God had said to them had been enough. What God wanted for them had been what they wanted for themselves, but in this decision they said to themselves, “Yes, but….”
And they reached for the fruit. The first moment of striving. They worked “in order that” they might have something they lacked rather than “because” God had so richly provided for them.
And so I have decided to try to fast from striving for Lent. And I invite you to join me. Each time you find that “catch” in your chest that signals anxiety, know that you are striving and turn to rest. It will take some patience on your part because we all strive so much of the time.
The world wants us to strive. Our rest challenges the very thing that gets them out of bed in the morning, that animates their whole lives. The enemy wants us to strive. He absolutely hates it when we live out of our rest. He can’t control us and neither can the people around us when we live out of our rest.
So let’s weary the enemy. Let’s fast from striving for 40 days. Let’s learn to rest when we are tempted to strive, and just see how much more energy we really have, how much less anxiety, how much more peace….
