Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
Rest From Who He Is
The mill runs all night and the man on second shift has the floor to himself. Flour dust hangs in the light over the roller stands and settles on his sleeves and on the rim of the mug he set down an hour ago and hasn’t touched since. He walks the line and puts his hand flat on each housing as he passes. Three in the morning is the middle of his day.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. A yoke is a thing you wear while you work, and he’s offering his to people who are already worn through. For I am gentle and humble in heart, he says, and that’s the reason he gives for taking his yoke and learning from him. My yoke is easy, he says, and my burden is light.
So Jesus makes himself the reason. Working next to a harsh person turns the same shift into a different day, and every tired person alive knows that in their body without anyone explaining it.
I’ve come to think most tiredness is about how many times a day a person has to decide something. Whatever’s wearing you down, Jesus offers himself as the rest, and he’s offering it with the work still in front of you.
The rest he names is rest for your souls. People have found it in weeks when nothing on the outside moved at all, and in houses where the same argument was still going. The yoke stays on. He calls it his own, and learning him is how the weight of it changes.
Somewhere after four he hears one of the lines go rough and shuts it down, and half the building falls quiet. He stands with his hand on the switch, listening to what’s left.
A Prayer to Remember
Lord Jesus, I’ve been treating rest as the thing waiting on the far side of a finished list, and the list is never finished. You called the tired ones and you gave your word about rest. I’m coming the way I am tonight, with everything still undone. Be gentle with me, the way you said you are.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
