A Little Mystery; A Little Rest Please

SCRIPTURE: Come to me . . . and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you . . . and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28-29

THOUGHT: In the 1960s, advertising economist Bob Coen estimated that an average consumer interacted with more than 3 million subconscious marketing messages daily—and that was 50 years ago! Just open your refrigerator and there’s 100-plus branded items facing you. Walk the aisles of the local supermarket and you’ll find a toothpaste claiming to detox gums (and costing 3x the average tube), and then peruse the new aisle called “pet beauty.” These and millions of other messages confront the eye: shopping, on buses, doctor’s offices, ‘rest’aurants, ‘rest’room stalls, mass media, and, well, everywhere, seeking to convince me that I have a problem—one the advertiser and science can solve.

Mystery seems to be the enemy in the culture we have created – every fear must be exploited, its antidote purchased. Every idea must be stretched to its breaking point. The promise of every idol must be plumbed to its golden depths.

I feel the heavy yoke.

Years of exposure to bits and bytes that beg a response wear down the soul. Information fatigue overwhelms, but the data keeps coming and I’m too tired to stay on top of it all. The rest I need, indeed require, for my soul, is missing.

So why put on yet another yoke? Because the yoke Jesus offers is a total replacement for the one the world would have me wear. I am free from trusting my own wits because more profoundly, I am confident in God. I enter the mystery of trust rather than trying to outrun the unknown. I rest in him.

SONG: Restless https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuhYZrn4flo

PRAYER: Oh God, you are much mystery. You number the hairs on my head and count the sparrows that fall – you rule the universe, yet love me. I accept the yoke Jesus offers: freedom from the world’s agenda and rest for my soul.