Without most of us realizing it, we have adapted to a noisy, artificial, obtrusive world.

When I was a child, I remember the TV only really being on for an extended period of time to catch Friday’s TGIF program or the local news after dinner. I remember the soft yellow light of our rooms in the evening that was usually only lit by one small lamp. Today, I fight with my kids to turn their attention away from electronics even for a season. Ten minutes away from their iPhone?!   No way!!) I live with the presence of bright, blue LED lighting everywhere. Those are only two examples of the sensory differences from my own life that have changed drastically in the last few decades.

Sometime the symptoms we think are just a sign of “getting older” are really our bodies giving us a warning that something is amiss. Are you dealing with high stress or chronic fatigue and blaming something else?

Rest is often seen as a passive activity, like napping or sitting, but it can also be active. Stretching or walking are both a form of active rest. Light exercise, three times a week, particularly when it is low impact (like swimming) helps provide pain relief and improves mobility. This is particularly important as we seek to age well.

We need to create a mental sanctuary. Don't let the enemy whisper suggestive garbage into your thoughts. Hold each one captive to Christ! Sometimes this looks like purging the thoughts from our mind before bedtime and trusting, in faith, that God will work all of it out for our good. Any thought that we can’t let go of we bring before the Lord and give it to him. In fact, every thought is captured and then forced into obedience to Christ.  In order to do this we must know what is true.  We must have a proper understanding of who God is and what He has said.  We cannot separate God’s will from His character.

When I think, “Man, that was stupid,” and I truly think I must be dumber than a box of rocks and worthless in my own eyes. I must stop and hold the thought in view of scripture. God says I am “fearfully and wonderfully made.” His word reminds me over, and over, that I am weak, and frail, and fallible, and STILL God is willing and powerful, present in my time of need. He is for me in a way that is staggering given my track record of failure.

So while I may feel inept and unable to do what is being asked of me, I know that God is helping me and will help me to accomplish all he has called me to do.  I am not stupid, just human, and cherished beyond measure. How dare I talk about myself, one of God’s children, in this way. Things may be hard, and I may not be able to accomplish much in my ow strength, but God sees me and will help me in my time of need. I step down from this very important soapbox….But please, stop speaking ill of yourself!

The Sabbath is there for us to connect with God our Father. He is the only sustaining source of peace and rest in our lives and we need, in greater measure….(that is, at least once a week) the time to engage with Him in a focused way.  The Sabbath is meant to be a needed blessing to us!

The Sabbath rest, though FOR us, is not about resting in a way that is ABOUT us.

“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 58:13-14

We must learn to bring our messy, erratic, or missing emotions to God. We need to learn to process our emotions in the proper way. An emotional rant on social media does not qualify as processing your emotions-no matter how therapeutic it feels in the moment. Processing emotions involves discovering why you feel the way you feel and being able to pinpoint where that feeling originated from.

Emotional rest is the cessation of (not sensation, but cessation-the bringing an end to) emotional striving. A lot of us are emotionally in knots and don’t even realize it. Is there conflict at work? Are you asked to deal with difficult people? Do you have a teenager, young adult, or grown child whose decisions are constantly weighing on you? Are you grieving the loss of a dream or adjusting to new, difficult circumstances? For something to count as an emotional stressor all there needs to be is a striving, a heart felt desire, an ache, a passion, a tension or pressure, and you may even find that you feel it physically before you are able to identify it emotionally.

Repentance can take some work. This might mean ACTUALLY apologizing to the one you hurt, making restitution where it is needed, or pay the person back of whom you owe.
These actions can be difficult but if you neglect them you will miss the full measure of relief and rest forgiveness offers. If you refuse to take action or pay any cost, your inaction may very well prove that you are not truly repentant.

Repentance opens the door for God to provide us spiritual rest from our sins of commission but what do we do with the fall out from sins that are of no fault of our own?

The truth is that some of us have trauma that was forced upon us. Pain often comes from personal loss or abuse we had no say in……..

Too many of us are working from a clear deficit of rest on a regular basis. We often lead with work and rest only when we feel we’ve earned it or, worse, when others feel it’s warranted. It would change the way we live if our mindset was to initially choose to rest, as we are able, before engaging in a substantial season of work. This would naturally set us up to engage from a stronger position, renewed strength, and fresh perspective.

Practicing unity in an age of diversity is never easy, yet we are called to be peacemakers in this fallen world to very imperfect people.

In and of itself, rightly dividing the Word of God is a weighty task that can take a substantial amount of time.

Let’s celebrate the fact that we are growing even when it may look as though we have stalled. If at some point you fail at a goal, remember your worth is not in your productivity or efforts. Your worldly successes and failures do not define who you are in the eyes of God. Rest in God’s grace and know you are wholly loved.

Thanksgiving, then, is an expression of worship, the natural outpouring of praise from a soul who realizes that while they deserve death-they have been given life. Thanksgiving helps us to remember our faith and protects us from wandering away from God. In view of the work of Christ on the cross, humility and thankfulness are the foundations for joy… and no amount of hardship, pain or suffering can steal from it. Our gratitude is pleasing to God because it is the proper response to His Mercy, our thankfulness shows our adoration.

The sin of slander is to be taken seriously in the life of a Christian because all people are created to be image bearers of God. When we tear down others we devalue them, and by proxy vandalize God’s reputation. Slander causes very real, sometimes long lasting damage to ourselves and others. It is stealing the good name of another. Slander destroys relationships with our neighbors and separates close friends. It is discouraging and confusing, and derails the mission of the church, it disrupts our worship, and makes our offering unacceptable.

Before there can be something beautiful, something has to die.

Jesus, of course, is our ultimate example. He raises from the dead in both a spiritual sense and a literal, bodily sense. Every part of our lives; our resources, talents, health, anything of which we have authority, and everything that we have cultivated, ALL, are to be used for the glory of God and the transmission of the gospel. To die, we must deal honestly with ourselves. But the idea of dying to ourselves does not need to be complicated or scary. We die to ourselves every time we simply say, “yes,” to the Lord. How would our lives change if we resolved in our hearts to say “yes”, the next time the Holy Spirit gave unction? What would happen if we were to remain available and look for the places we were being called to serve? What is the next, “yes” you will say to the Lord?

Part of our problem is, we don’t think of Jesus as a man with piercings. No, Jesus bears the ultimate body piercings, and they have a richer and more meaningful message to broadcast; they show the depths of God’s love for us and provision for our sin. Jesus, with his piercings honors his Father. It is his statement of love and the consequences of sin- his message rings loud and clear. How far was he willing to go? He followed completely willing, even to the point of death. His marks are the proof of how much pain and discomfort he was willing to endure, not just his physical sufferings, but the weight of all the world’s sin, and the entire wrath of God the Father. This, all, to reconcile us to himself. We who are unworthy and unfaithful, who, too often trample under foot that which is holy.

If we find our hearts are wavering, our trust incomplete, our confidence diminished, we must cling to the Word, specifically the character and promises of God, until they are solidified in our hearts and minds—an impenetrable fortress against the devil.

Yet, we cannot rest in what we feel. We rest in what we are sure of from the word of God. We cannot trust in what we see. We can only rest in what we know from the Word of God. I cannot trust in my own vain works. I can only rest in the works of a perfect Savior. It is a blessing to rest in this way because my trust is in someone I have access to, someone I know—Jesus. And His Friendship is worth it all.

However, we must be careful that while we tell others about OUR love for them, we are not negating the fact that, really, it’s about how much God loves them. He loves them more than we can even fathom. Is it not true for ourselves? We love others because Christ first loved us. (1 John 4:19) Christ came and showed us what it means to love. God proved His love by sacrificing His son on the cross.

I believe one of the misnomers about depression is that we anticipate a depressed person to always be in a sad or anxious mood. But it is more or less that seasons of depression are woven throughout one’s life; that to the level one might feel happiness, in a moment, they can feel the same in sorrow. So the depressed person can seem like the life of the party, just not perpetually. There are bouts of depression and anxiety caused by circumstances beyond our control. Sometimes it comes after great milestones, even joyous ones, like the birth of a baby. Other times it may come from the grief and loss of a beloved, the death of a dream or aspiration, the loss of ability. What seems small to one can paralyze another for there is intimately more going on than meets the eye.

I didn’t realize it, but I was in need of a great humbling. After a difficult week, I did what any average American women would do, and loaded my kids up for McDonald’s. I wouldn’t have to prepare at least one meal, and I completely planned on, and relished the thought of, sitting in my booth alone and mindlessly taking the time to breathe. McDonald’s was a fairly busy place. As I watched the kids play, I couldn’t help but also watch the coming and going of others. I’m pretty sure I was privy to someone’s blind date gone wrong, or maybe the worst job interview I’ve ever seen. Who knows?

And then there was Abigail.

It’s acceptable to grieve the loss of my well laid plans or my hopes and dreams for the future. But we must never forget that, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Jesus was the first-fruits, He is our guarantee of salvation and a bodily resurrection. He went first–conquering the grave! I think too often we live with the understanding that, to live is gain, to die is Christ. This is what we focus our hearts on the here and now as if it will last forever and trust that what lies beyond the grave Christ has taken care of. To live and live well, is to live Christ.

A lot of us take these festivities to a whole other level, spending on credit and feasting on novelties, we strive to make something for everyone, whether that be to bring something from nothing or to make something out of EVERYTHING. And this brings us to another cultural holiday anomaly- the Hallmark Movie. Who hasn’t seen the quintessential Christmas-loving, odd couple played out by two incredibly pretty people, who have come together only after one’s homecoming from the big city to find they have a shared inheritance *gasp* but only after exchanging some embarrassing or intimate moment, all to hate-and then love one another before finding out that one of them is actually a royal and the other a secret reporter, so that they can come together in the end and make the perfect family!