Anxious vs. Rest for the soul!
Matthew 6:25-34 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Hebrews 4:9-11 So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
Sabbath..a day of celebration and delight
The Sabbath is …meant to be an encounter with God’s delight
The Sabbath is the kind of delight that leads to life.
The Sabbath is grateful celebration…the bread of gratitude.
God created menuha on the seventh day. Menuha is the Hebrew word for rest…joyous repose, tranquility, or delight.
-Dan Allendar, Sabbath
Debbie and I are currently in Rochester, Minnesota, where we have once again enjoyed wonderful friendship, hospitality, and fellowship with the Fischer family. Today Debbie began the final week of a very helpful three week program at Mayo’s Pain Rehabilitation Center (PRC). The program focuses on educating and equipping those experiencing chronic pain (and family members) with tools, methods, and strategies for effectively adapting to and managing pain in order to regain control and improve the overall quality of their lives; so they can in fact enjoy life again! Chronic pain, as opposed to acute pain, is defined as pain that continues to be experienced for 6 months or longer, and assumes that; all healing due to injury, disease, etc., has occurred; the pain may be in excess of physical findings, injury or disease process (no visible injury/pain); the pain intensity may never completely go away, the warning signal is broken; etc.,. Chronic pain is experienced when nerve(s) misfire and send wrong messages that are being interpreted by the brain as pain. Additional testing revealed a significant factor contributing to the chronic fatigue syndrome. Debbie’s sleep pattern was shown to be very irregular (on average she woke up 58 times/hour). Restless leg syndrome played a significant part in this. We are very grateful that she is sleeping much better and has been waking up much more rested as a result of the help she has received for this.
Debbie will fly to Philadelphia on Saturday (May 7) where she will be met by Audrey and Francis and the final preparations for their wedding on the 14th will be put in motion. I plan to drive back to Siloam Springs on Wednesday (May 4) in order to attend Ben’s graduation on Saturday from John Brown University with my parents and my brother’s family (Ben is my brother Alan and Sheri’s youngest, and the last of the cousins on the Wolcott side). Making sure not to forget Audrey’s wedding dress, I will pack the car following the graduation celebrations and in caravan with my parents head northeast with the rest of the wedding paraphernalia (sounds better than “stuff”) for both Audrey and Francis’ (14th) and Abbie and Bo’s (21st) weddings. The plan is to join Debbie at CMML (Christian Missions in Many Lands) headquarters in New Jersey before moving to Margaret Rineer’s home (AIM’s “home away from home” for college age MKs), which is just ten minutes from Perkasie, Pennsylavania, where Audrey and Francis’ wedding will take place. Aaron leaves Congo this Friday, taking a three week break from his responsibilities with Samaritan’s Purse to join the wedding celebrations. He intends to meet up with Abbie and using her car make his way north to be with us. Abbie and Bo will join us on Thursday!
Our plan is as a family (except for the honeymooners!) to worship with the believers at Fifth Avenue Chapel in Springlake, NJ on Sunday. When my parents lived and worked at CMML they were involved at Fifth Avenue and we have appreciated and benefitted from the interest of, and friendship with the believers there. From there we will drive south to Columbia, South Carolina and begin the final preparations for Abbie and Bo’s wedding on the 21st in Columbia. With the weddings behind us we will head back to Arkansas. We hope by then to have a clearer picture of what may be next for us. We currently have bookings to return to Entebbe the end of May. We continue to seek clear leading and direction from Father as to when, where, and what He specifically wants us engaged in.
As we stop to consider (either as a whole or as independent activities or portions) all that has and is going on in our lives there are many reasons to, as a natural response, tend to be anxious. Several weeks ago as I ‘anxiously’ sought the Lord for direction I asked, ‘What should I be doing?’ The very clear response was, “resting”. I asked, “What do You mean by that? What does that look like?” Walking along the river reflecting on and seeking answers to those questions my attention was brought to focus on the many varieties of wild flowers and grasses, demanding by their exquisite beauty that I take notice of how they were clothed. And then to the incredible variety of song birds that flitted about in and out of the branches of the trees and brush along the river without a seeming care in the world; and as they did so declared their presence through their songs emanating through the air of this particularly beautiful Spring day. As beauty and wonder unfolded about me the verses and thoughts above came to mind and it began to dawn on me that Father was pointing me to the answers to my questions. I returned to the cabin to read and reread and reflect over and over on these verses and their meaning.
Roy Lessin, who is a cofounder of DaySpring writes the following in his blog, Meet me the Meadow:
I believe God is good:
For the LORD is good. Psalm 100:5 NKJV
I believe He is always good. He is good in easy times and hard times, in quiet times and busy times, in smooth times and rugged times. He is good on stormy days and calm days, on smooth waters and rough seas, on high mountains and in deep valleys. I believe God is good to me and He will never do anything bad.
I believe God will guide me:
“In Your unfailing love You will lead the people You have redeemed. In Your strength You will guide them to Your holy dwelling. Exodus 15:13 NIV
I believe my life is in God’s hands and keeping. I believe He has a plan and purpose for my life and that He is leading me in a path that will fulfill that plan and purpose. I believe it is a good plan, a right plan, and the best plan. I believe there is not a better, higher, or wiser way for me to live or way for me to follow. I believe God knows exactly what He is doing and that He will bring things into my life at the exact time they are needed. I believe He wants me to follow Him with praise on my lips for who He is, with thanks in my heart for what He does, and with obedience in my steps for what He asks me to do.
Debbie and I have no real reason to be anxious! We can enter into Sabbath rest, because we do believe that God is always good; And that because our lives are in God’s hands and keeping, He will guide us. And so we rest, …or probably more appropriately I should I say, we are learning to rest.
Thanks for ‘praising’ and ‘praying’ with us!
Resting (celebrating and delighting) in Jesus!
Steve & Debbie
Wolcott Wanderings 