Learning to Rest
By: Casey
Run, John, and work, the law commands,
Yet finds me neither feet nor hands;
But sweeter news the gospel brings,
It bids me fly and lends me wings.
I read this old poem the other day by John Berridge and
it resonated with me. You see, I am a typical firstborn child-hard working,
driven, and motivated by achievement and success. I can remember getting a “B”
on my 6th grade Australia report and hated how that felt so I
committed to never getting a “B” again. I hated sitting on the bench for so
many basketball games in 7th and 8th grade so I spent a
great deal of time over the summer trying to improve and in 9th
grade I made the Junior Varsity. I always seemed to find the drive to work
hard.
I am blessed to have been raised in a family that went to
church and prayed to God. However, as I got older, it became more of a
tradition to me than a serious part of my life. As I got into high school, three
things became of utmost importance to me: sports, grades and friends. My self-worth
was rooted in how I performed in these areas. As long as I had friends and was
doing well in sports and school, I was great! But as we all know, this is both
exhausting and impossible to always excel in every area. So I was often discouraged,
tired and stressed out.
When I was a senior in high school I became friends with
a sophomore on the basketball team. She had a very strong faith in Christ and
one day she asked me if I knew for sure that I would be in heaven when I
died. This question rolled around in my
mind for weeks and I realized that I didn’t know much of what the Bible said or
what I believed. One night while on a campus visit at Marquette University, I
left a party early because I just couldn’t stop thinking about the question my
friend asked me. In a crazy, “only God could make this happen” sort of a way,
somebody put a pamphlet on my car that night that was full of Scripture
explaining how I could know for sure I would be in heaven when I died. The
Bible says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans
3:23) and that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). It explained that Christ
died to pay the death sentence that I owed for my sin because of His love for
me. I then understood that I didn’t have to work for this gift of forgiveness,
love and eternal life. I simply needed to believe that because of my sin I needed
a Savior and needed trust in Christ’s life, death and resurrection. After
working hard in so many areas of life, what a joy to know I didn’t need to work
for this but that the work was done!
That night was a turning point in my life. I decided that
if Jesus really loved me enough to go to the cross on my behalf, that He was
worthy of my whole life and I would follow Him. Of course not everything
changed overnight. I am still so prone to live under performance and to find my
self-worth in what I achieve. I will always be a hard worker but what a difference
it makes to know that God’s love, forgiveness and eternal life have been achieved
through Christ and I don’t have to work for them. I can rest and am free!
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