Aren’t those days great when you rise to sunshine and hope in the air and the promise of something new and special right around the corner?
Isn’t it wonderful when the season is a promising one and we can see everywhere the signs of spring?
But there are days when we wake knowing today isn’t going to be awesome.
The days we face a conflict that must be resolved,
the days we know there are apologies we must give and forgiveness to be asked for,
the days of sickness and tiredness rolled into one,
the days of disappointments and rejections….
The days that feel like a every breath is a fight, and the pit of your stomach weighs heavy in your body.
These are the days I come to remember again how much I need the One, the source, the place of eternal rest.
The invitation calls more strongly in the place of distress – come to me you who are burdened and weary and I will give you rest.
The bible is a promise of never being alone in triumph or disaster.
Jesus… the one who walked in distress, who wept, who raged, who offended, who comforted, who understood, who reached out to the rejected, who was himself rejected, who suffered the physical pain of death… this is the Voice who said…
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
Maybe you face a day, or a week, or a season that feels like even the whisper of wonderful is impossible – in the midst of all of that may you know what it is to rest right next to the heartbeat of God.
May you find yourself safely in the arms that never grow tired or weak or restless.
Because the fact that today isn’t going to be awesome doesn’t mean you are abandoned.
May you cast yourself bone-weary and broken, fearful and needing forgiveness at the place where all of it is swallowed up into the broken body of Jesus as he wins your peace, as he wins your rest, as he wins Hope beyond the borders of our mess, and forever.
Miriam Jessie 