Labor Day Rest

This week we are celebrating Labor Day. It’s a holiday that should be about getting rest, but most fail to take advantage of the opportunity. We know a great deal about working but very little about resting. Some of what we do has the semblance of rest but not the significance. Let me explain by sharing a conversation I had recently with my mother. I called her during the morning hours and she and dad were in the middle of eating breakfast.  She began to explain, “We sleep later some mornings, and sometimes after we wake up we just lie in the bed and rest a while.” She laughed and continued, “It’s something when you are in bed all night and wake up and still have to rest awhile.  That’s what happens when you get old I guess.”  Although humorous there is a message in that story.  Quite often after we have gone through the routine of sleeping we find ourselves still in the need of rest. The reason being we sleep because we have to we rest because we choose to. When we compare this to our spiritual lives we recognize the same principle applies.  We enter into the experience of salvation because we have to, but we rest in the promises and power of Christ because we choose to. This is the message the writer of Hebrews was trying to convey in Chapter four. We can spend long nights laboring in our salvation but satisfaction will only come when we turn to resting in God’s finished work.  Hopefully with age, comes the realization that we need to choose more rest and less labor.