Perfect Rest

What a beautiful reality, where my responsibility becomes futility;

Where trying more is trying less and letting go is being blessed;

Where striving toward the perfect goal, the grander cause, not duty but delight. 

Where knowing love is all my life. My perfect rest, your perfect might.

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Laughter is the best way to express perfect rest. 

I have wanted to reach this point my whole life. All the books, all the stories, the dreams, and the moments of imagining what life could be have coalesced into a beautiful song called life. This life is no longer my own, but Christ who lives through me. My struggle to reach this place is not over, but my fight has been won. This present reality is but a glimpse of my future. It is from this place of perfect content that God will work through my life. It is not through my effort and talents, but through my rest and surrender that I will enter into the great things that God has prepared for me.

This rest does not refer to sleep or sloth, but to trust. It is the posture of my heart. As I seek to know the One who gives me life, I will discover Him through my actions, interactions and reflections. If I seek the actions, interactions and reflections that could reveal Him, I will be disappointed in my search. By seeking that which is good, I find only a reflection of that which is best. By seeking that which is best, I find that what is good makes that which is best even more beautiful. Thus, the posture of rest is one that seeks only what is best. It does not pursue the multitude of worthy causes that present themselves to me. However, in pursuit of the One who is worth everything, I will find myself undertaking many of the worthy causes.

1 Corinthians 14:1 demonstrates this subtle difference in a challenge to “Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts.” Though the demonstrations of love are desired, they are worth nothing apart from the pursuit of love. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 precedes this short phrase with the warning that actions without love are worthless. Thus, the good gifts are desired, but only one thing is pursued: LOVE!

To pursue love as a character, thought, action, or emotion would be a mistaken application of this passage. For love does not exist apart from God. 1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.”

In conclusion, then, my pursuit of God - of knowing God, and walking with Him in a restored relationship - is the source of my love, which gives value to the demonstration of love. Within this framework, everything that I do receives its value from the way in which it reflects the nature of God, expands my enjoyment of who He is, and demonstrates His love to the world. I rest. I enjoy. He works through me. 

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