“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.” Matt.11:28-30.
Dear Jesus, your welcome is constant, your compassion is unequaled, your grace is alone sufficient for our great insufficiency. Help us to see the ways we avoid, ignore, and disbelieve your gracious offer of rest and peace. Help us to see the ways the deceitfulness of sin and our deceitful hearts keep us from your burden-bearing love and chain-breaking kindness. Help us to see ourselves in these 7 vignettes of grace-avoidance and self-sabotaging foolishness.
- Planning to get even is like setting our GPS for a one-way trip into the Arabian desert without water or sun protective clothing.
- Nursing a grudge is like putting a straw in a quart bottle of outdated castor oil and sipping for a few days, months, or years.
- Holding onto resentment is like grabbing an angry rattlesnake in each hand and then mimicking the dance moves of Elaine on Seinfeld.
- Rehearsing the failures of others is like rehearsing to play the part of spitting lama in a low-budget middle school play.
- Preferring denial over dealing honestly with our heart wounds, deepest regrets, and childhood traumas is to prefer paralyzing shame over healing grace.
- Making excuses for staying angry is like making my own birthday cake with kale, unsweetened baking chocolate, spite-flour, and soured milk.
- Choosing to build a wall around our heart with bricks commemorating the many ways many people have hurt us is not choosing to self-protect but choosing to self-destruct. Set us free Jesus. It is your kindness that is leading us to repentance this very day. We choose your rest over our resentments. We choose your grace over our shame. We choose you over everything. So Very Amen
