The more time I spend with the Lord, the more I get to know His nature. And the more I know His true nature, the more I want to spend time with Him. What a blessed cycle!
As I quiet down in His presence, my trust in Him builds as I experience the peace He provides when I rest in Him. In Matthew 11 in the Message Jesus says, “Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”
As you hear this parable by Wayne Mueller describing how the kingdom of God works much like a seed, hear Jesus calling you to slow down and take a longer view of yourself as we move in the natural rhythms He provides.
“We can work without stopping, faster and faster, electric lights making artificial day so the whole machine can labor without ceasing. But remember: no living thing lives like that. There are greater rhythms that govern how life grows....seasons and sunsets and great movements of seas and stars...We are part of the creation story, subject to the laws and rhythms.
“To surrender to the rhythms of seasons and flowerings and dormancies is to savor the secret of life itself.
“Many scientists believe we are ‘hard-wired’ like this, to live in rhythmic awareness, to be in and then step out, to be engrossed and then detached, to work and then to rest...It is a reminder of how things are, the rhythmic dance to which we unavoidably belong.” Wayne Mueller
When I can make myself slow down, I can get in touch with the rhythms of life instead of doggedly trudging on to satisfy the accomplish-monster inside of me. That has become the work of my salvation and perhaps yours too. David said that there is a time for everything under the heavens. When I surrender to the rhythms of life, I can learn to rest when that season presents itself. I am one of those people who has to work at resting. But I am trying.