True Rest (please forgive the format, the site is doing WEIRD stuff that I cannot conquer!)

Ecclesiastes 2:22-26

 ²² What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? ²³ All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.²⁴ A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, ²⁵ for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? ²⁶ To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God.

Ok King Solomon, I know you were old when you wrote this; but did you ever drink a big old cup of woe on this chapter!  As king, Solomon had the opportunity and resources to pursue the rewards of wisdom, pleasure, and work.  But his weary tone of Ecclesiastes suggests that late in his life, he looked back with regret. I think that is true for most of us.

Ecclesiastes shows us that in Solomon's journey he was searching for the meaning of life.   I don't think that is unique. We all, esp mothers and wives, want to make our families happy.   We become committed to that job with fervor only to find that some days feel like failure. We worry, we plan, we strive; and yet every night when the toys are picked up, tomorrow's clothes are laid at the foot of the bed, homework is done, baths are complete and all your chores are done:  life reminds you that it won.  Solomon felt the same way.  I have read Ecclesiastes many times and just recently a certain phrase leapt out at me like a lion!  Did you catch it?  "even at night their minds do not rest." 

So, let me get this straight:  the son of King David, the wisest man in the world at the time, the ruler of a kingdom, a man who loved God, a visionary, could NOT stop his mind at night?  Almost every night when my children were young, I could not turn off the check list scrolling in my mind.  "I need to go to the grocery store tomorrow for crackers.  Cade needs his hair cut.  Faith needs new pointe shoes.  Jacob needs new sheet music.  Friday we have spelling tests.  How do I get both boys to baseball on Saturday because Clint has to work?  I need to book Cade's birthday venue.  What are we going to do for vacation this summer?" 

I could not turn off my mind and just when exhaustion forced me to release it:  someone would wake up or the alarm would go off and here we would go again.

Let me just use Solomon's own words to encourage you oh wise one: "For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, the more knowledge the more grief!"  
Ecc. 1:8

We must be brilliant!

 I don't care who you are, what your position is in life, your age, your gender or even you IQ: we all worry some and have difficulty turning off our brains.  (King David and King Solomon certainly did)  I have even found an article on economist.com titled "What the World Worries About".  How sad is that? We all worry, we all have checklists, we all have moments when life is overwhelming, and we all have times when we wonder "what is it all for?"  

Check out King David's last words to his son, Solomon: 

I Kings 2:1-3 When David's time to die was near, he told his son Solomon, "I am going the way of all the earth. So be strong.  Show yourself to be a man.  Do what the Lord your God tells you.  Walk in His ways.  Keep all His Laws and His Word by what is written in the Law of Moses.  Then you will do well in all that you do and in every place you go.

King David, who is attributed to writing 73 Psalms, was worried & stressed as well.
 (None of us are immune to it) 

Psalm 4:1  Give me relief from my distress, have mercy on me and hear my prayer.  
Psalm 6:6-7 I am worn out from my groaning, all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.  My eyes grow weak with sorrow.  
Psalm 18:6 In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help.  From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry reached His ears.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• I googled:  "leaders of the world and stress" and I got 367 million hits

• I googled:   "mothers and stress" and I got 68 million 200 thousand hits

• I googled:  "college students and stress" and I got 86 million 400 hits

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  

Let me tell you what was going on in King David's life when he wrote many of the Psalms:  His son Absalom had rebelled against him because he desired to be king, there was a civil war, Absalom was killed, David's grief followed, he faced rebellion of friends, at one point in his life he was in exile because Saul wanted to kill him, David sinned against God with Bathsheba, had her husband murdered, then the two had a baby that died.  David had a country to run and keep safe from intruders, he at times feared for his own life, he was responsible for returning the Ark of the Covenant, his people suffered pestilence and sickness, he became quite ill, he feared his enemies and sometimes even his friends, and his responsibilities were immense throughout his life.  His checklists were huge, important and sometimes life threatening. 

 But look at some of the beautiful words he penned during it all:

Psalm 37:7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him, do not fret. 

Psalm 20:7  Some trust in chariots and some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord.

 

Psalm 55:1 Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy! Attend to and answer me, I am restless in my complaint and I moan. 

 Psalm 57:1 Be merciful to me, O God, for my soul trusts you.  And in the shadow ofyour wings I will take refuge until the storms of destruction pass by. 

Psalm 125:1 Those who trust int he Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever. 

======================================================== 

No one is immune to a racing mind when the day is done.  But as Christians we have an "off switch." 

THE SHADOW OF GOD'S WINGS IS YOUR SAFE PLACE, YOUR OFF SWITCH IF YOU WILL.

There you are untouchable.   

There you are safe. 

There you can breathe. 

There you can turn off the world.

There you can find grace in reality.