How to enjoy the rest that will come someday only from our God
By Dean Collins
I am not sure if this is real or if I am the star of the sequel to The Truman Show, a film that hit the box office in 1998. Since the movie was released 34 years ago, I don’t feel guilty about giving away some of the plot. You had your chance.
I don’t remember all of the details but I do remember that Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank, living in a reality TV show and everyone but him knows it. The film was shot in the little town of Seaside Florida, not far from where I am sitting as I write today’s thoughts. Above is a picture taken from the porch where we decided to take an impromptu vacation.
It is quiet here. Everyone seems happy. People come and go from their vacation rentals to the pool or beach. Everyone who walks down the sidewalk while I write each morning says hello. It seems like a perfect little world. Of course, part of the magic is that this isn’t really how any of us here live. Everyone in this perfect setting, as far as I can tell, came here to get away from their day-to-day activities. All of us were looking and hoping for some rest, some relaxation, for a break from the daily routine.
In the film, it took Truman about 30 years before he finally realized the world he lived in was fake. It takes only a week on this street before everyone realizes the same about vacations. They are nice and can be fun and relaxing, but they aren’t really how we live the other 51 weeks of the year. But could we? Should we?
Real rest
Most people who know me would say I am a hard worker. I was raised that way. It is in my wiring to work. In fact, it is really hard for me not to work. I have many good friends. I have good colleagues and a good board of trustees I work for, and many wise counselors in my life. They often tell me the same thing my wife tells me: You need to get some rest. I am enjoying the fantasy street where I am staying this week and it has been good for me to change scenery. But if I understand what the letter of Hebrews is describing, then going to a world like Truman’s isn’t exactly how or where we find true, real, and sustainable rest.
According to Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 and a lot of other supporting scripture, the promise of rest still stands. It is available. It is dependable. And if you hear the voice of the One who offers it today, then the decision time has not yet run out. Rest can begin when we step into the promise of God.
The creator of the universe who himself rested and enjoyed all of his creation on the seventh day offers us to join him in his rhythm of rest. But it doesn't come to us by a legalism of making sure you take a day off every week or a week off every year, and then years off when we hit retirement age. Those things may be good and helpful, but the rest God offers is much, much more. All of the sabbaths we take are good, but they are only samples or tastes of the real and permanent rest of God that comes by faith and obedience.
Fear instead of faith
The Hebrew people stood and stared at the Promised Land. They saw the goodness of milk, honey, and the abundance of fresh fruit that was available. They knew the land was real. Twelve of their own had seen it with their own eyes and described it to them. They didn’t doubt its existence. They simply decided not to embrace and receive what God offered. Their fear was bigger than their faith. The consequences of that decision wiped out a whole generation.
Time and time again in scripture and in our lives as well we come to this same moment. We know God’s promises are true. We have listened to many who have experienced them and recounted them to us. We have read the reliable and active Word of God, and yet we choose to ignore it, believing that somehow we can do better, find the better path forward. Somehow we think that our work will be superior to resting on the finished work of Jesus.
God’s rest
The writers of Truman left us wondering what Truman’s life was like when he finally woke up and realized there was a real world waiting for him. The last scene in the movie is Truman stepping out of his fake world and into that real world.
I have enjoyed my respite and hopefully I will enjoy weeks like this again in places of beauty. But what I really need and you need as well is to let go of thinking you own it all, can fix it all, and can do it better than God.
What we all need to do today is heed the encouragement of Hebrews: “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”
Rest well today and always! It is a gift of God for all of us to embrace and enjoy.
Your time with God’s Word
Hebrews 3:7-19; 4:1-16 ESV
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