Today, I was reading some newsletters written over the years by Elisabeth Elliot, the missionary, author, and public speaker , and I stumbled across one entitled "Restlessness and Worry." Without a second thought, I clicked and read (guess it was on my heart) and I was so blessed by her. Jesus means for us to learn to find rest in Him (his yoke is easy and his burden is light), despite the circumstances of our lives. Here's just a bit of it (I recommend the whole darn thing!):
...We quote St. Augustine: “Our hearts are
restless until they rest in Thee.” But do we
live it out? Do we not tend instead to live...
as if our perpetual
restlessness is more or less normal, assuming
that our lives are supposed to be a series of
struggles to achieve “closure”? Subconsciously,
we rephrase the quote: “My heart is restless
until it rests at the end of this current effort.
Until then, naturally I will be agitated.”
What were you worried about last
Wednesday? Did the worrying do you any
good? You know it didn’t. Worrying is forbidden
(read Matthew 6:25, Philippians 4:6,
Psalm 37). It is useless, a colossal waste of
time. Still, we carry on as if it’s unavoidable.
...Can you
accept this moment, just this one, trusting
Him and becoming still before Him? Can you
do it when you are in a traffic jam, becoming
tardier by the minute for an appointment? It is
God’s appointment for you—sitting there
breathing exhaust fumes, learning to calm
your soul by acknowledging that He is in
charge of every detail of your life and that
everything that happens to you has come
through the hedge of His love.
There is always time enough to do the will
of God. The great thing is to make our planning
subject to God’s perfect plan, laying our
agendas at His feet and asking Him to help us
choose wisely. All of us have duties. How
gratefully and calmly we carry them out will
indicate how we have obeyed Him.
...When life throws you a curve, when problems
seem to have no answer, when fear
gains the upper hand, what are we to do? We
must trust, holding on to the unchanging
truth that God is absolutely faithful. In my
moments of weakness I cling to Psalm 56:3,
which reads, “What time I am afraid, I will
trust in Thee.”
Isn't that beautiful? And Elisabeth Elliot, herself, has lived in Jesus' rest through some really, really hard times; her husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in an attempt to share the Gospel with the Auca tribe of eastern Ecuador when he was 29 years old. She later spent 2 years as a missionary to the very tribe who killed her husband. What great trust in God's faithfulness she must have had--talk about loving your enemies!! There is no other force in the world like it.
One of my favorite poets, Rainer Maria Rilke, writes this in his Book of Hours: Love Poems to God:
I am, you anxious one.
Don't you sense me, ready to break
into being at your touch?
My murmurings surround you like shadowy wings.
Can't you see me standing before you
cloaked in stillness?
Hasn't my longing ripened in you
from the beginning
as fruit ripens on a branch?
I am the dream you are dreaming.
When you want to awaken, I am that wanting:
I grow strong in the beauty you behold,
And with the silence of stars I enfold
your cities made by time.
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