“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

When life starts getting a little harder and more complicated, I have this go-to place of mild panic. And when I slip into mild panic mode, I get…well,a titch more controlling.

I like order. I like predictability. Not that I’m necessarily rigid (at least I hope not), but I do tend to expect the world to follow the rules and stay neatly in the lanes I’ve mapped out for it.

The problem is, the world never actually agreed to those rules.

And, they’re mostly just in my head.

You’d think I would have learned this lesson when my kids were little. Those of you who have cared for littles know how quickly any illusion of order disappears. Just when the baby settles into a reliable sleep schedule, a growth spurt arrives and everything changes. Just when your toddler finally decides they’ll eat one particular cereal, they announce that they only want the other one;the brand the grocery store stopped carrying three months ago, so now you’re driving across town in search of breakfast.

At one point, Hugh, my engineering husband, designed a baby flow chart to diagnose the source of the midnight howling. Hungry? Wet? Tired? Too hot? Too cold?

It worked for about a week.

Then it was as though someone had quietly swapped out our baby for a newer model with entirely different operating instructions. The flow chart became obsolete overnight.

Life is like that.

It’s rarely predictable.

It’s often not solvable.

And really, sometimes life isn’t a problem to fix so much as a reality to walk through.

And that’s where Jesus’ words meet us.

When we’re worn out, our instinct is often to tighten our grip. We try to organize life a little better, plan a little harder, control a few more variables. Surely if we can just get everything lined up, we’ll finally be able to rest.  

But Jesus doesn’t offer us a better planner.

He offers himself.

“Come to me.”

It’s such a simple invitation, and yet one of the hardest things to accept. Because coming to Jesus means admitting that we can’t carry everything ourselves. It means letting go of the illusion that if we just worked harder or planned better, we’d finally be okay.

Jesus speaks of taking on his yoke. At first glance, that sounds like one more burden. But a yoke is something shared. Jesus isn’t handing us more work; he’s inviting us to walk with him, to learn his way of moving through the world, with gentleness, humility, and trust in God rather than endless striving or working.

The rest Jesus offers isn’t the absence of responsibility or the promise that life will suddenly become predictable. It’s the deep rest that comes when we stop trying to be in charge of everything.

That’s harder than it sounds.

For those of us who like our flow charts, our schedules, and our carefully constructed plans, surrender feels anything but restful. Yet Jesus gently invites us to loosen our grip—not because the world has become less uncertain, but because he is trustworthy.

The world will continue to surprise us. Plans will unravel. Life will refuse to stay in its lane.

But perhaps rest isn’t found when everything finally makes sense.

Perhaps rest is found when we stop insisting that it must and simply follow the One who already knows the way.

Blessings today my dear Bethel Friends, and remember you are Loved.

~Rev Lynne

Audio File:https://audio.com/lynne-gardiner/audio/office-hours-come-to-me