Change 10 – Come To Me

Reading: Matthew 11:28-30

28 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. 29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28-30 The Message)

Thanks for staying with me on this series about Change. You know what they say, “Change is inevitable except from a vending machine!” Change originates in a lot of ways. There’s change we initiate by our decisions, change that happens to us by other people’s decisions, change that results from changes in circumstance, and season of life changes. I’m planning to address “Seasons of Life” in another series later this year.

Change can be exciting or change can be grueling or change can be terrifying! But one reality of change is that it takes a toll on us. Change can be upsetting, both emotionally and physically. Change can be exhausting. Even positive change is disruptive and demands more from us than when we’re just ticking along peacefully with life. As I looked back over the things we’ve dealt with in the past ten days, a phrase came to me from Eugene Peterson’s “Message” translation, “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”

Jesus said, “If you’re tired, come to me!” And he said, “if you’re feeling burned out, come to me! It won’t be a passive sitting on the stream bank splashing your toes in the water, it’ll be an active process—you’ll walk with me and work with me and watch how I do it.” Let’s see if we can “learn the unforced rhythms of grace!” We’ll face change again and again in life. We’ll get to do some enjoyable changes sometimes and we’ll be blindsided by catastrophic change at other times. But we can’t just push on through  life anxiously dreading the next “whiplash” of change that hits us!

Since January 1, we’ve thought about New Beginnings, Learning to be Content, and Facing Change. That’s a lot to process. So I’m going to slow the pace for a few days and take a stroll through Psalm 23. Let’s feed in green meadows and rest by peaceful waters, and learn the Unforced Rhythms of Grace!

Prayer:

Father, Thanks for your grace so freely given. Please nourish our souls, refresh our spirits and teach us the Unforced Rhythms of Grace. In Jesus’ Name.