Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. ~ Hebrews 4:1
I am tired. So tired in fact, that I just tried to order a peppermint spice latte at Starbucks instead of a pumpkin spice latte. Wrong holiday. [insert face palm emoji…]
God promises us rest, and in our society, we have missed the mark on that.
In context, this verse is a warning against apathy. The writer of Hebrews is telling us to not become lax in our faith and miss out on the rest. But it assumes that we already know what “rest” is.
Rest is more than sleep. Our world calls rest “self-care.” And then they put a bunch of rules on what constitutes self-care. We’ve lost the meaning of true rest.
We compartmentalize every aspect of life, set timers for deadlines, have our work besties and regular friends (and they’re oddly not allowed to overlap), and “carve out time” for taking care of ourselves. As if life is just a pumpkin and each piece is already assigned and then discarded. These things are necessary, but when they rule our lives, we miss God’s rest.
Rest is letting go of expectations. You will never measure up to other people’s expectations anyway. We work hard because God created us to work (another thought for another post, but Adam and Eve worked before the Fall in Genesis 3), and then we let go and trust that God will take care of the details.
Rest is all those self-care things the internet pushes on us, but it’s also just stopping to feel our breath and to trust that He is with us.
The verse says to be careful not to fall short of His rest. Are we falling short? As a society, I believe we are. But as an individual in God’s kingdom, let’s be careful not to miss out!