Receiving

Where there is unbelief, there is no rest. Unbelief keeps me working in the hope that one day “I” will accomplish enough to feel worthy of rest.  But rest is not the result of work, it is the result of faith.

Rest occurs when I trust that all the work is already done even though I wasn’t the one to do it.  Natural behavior reflects my inner posture.  Can I rest in the quality of the work done by someone else?  How often do I feel the need to follow up behind them to make sure the job was done and done correctly?  True rest comes to me when I do not think of myself more highly than I ought!

I am not the only one who can do a job right.  That kind of arrogance will keep me from experiencing the rest that comes to me in the form of another person.  Rest occurs when I can let someone else do the work for me.  Peace occurs when I don’t heed the false need to improve upon the work they did.

It is important to receive a gift for what and how it is.  A gift is not necessarily what I thought I needed, wanted or even asked for.  A gift is given at the whim of the giver. To receive the nakedness of the gift that was given means I won’t try to exchange if for something else.  Only when a gift is fully received can it be fully revealed and thus appreciated.

God gives the gift of people.  Appreciation opens the gift, and its meaning and purpose is then cultivated over time. People are fragile (yet flexible) gifts and God intends careful handling.  His are good and perfect gifts to be engaged lovingly and respectfully at all times. As I look with wonderment at the differences between gifts I gain appreciation for His discernment of which gifts most compliment my being.

His gifts aren’t always an obvious pairing.  The seeming mismatch may be difficult to appreciate but the unique perspectives are not without reason.   There is much to glean from each others point of reference before trying to rush toward the agreement that may come later.  I am encouraged to enjoy the differences instead of trying to coerce conformity.

There is no real work left to be done.  The only thing left is the rest.  There is a strong contrast between rest and work, love and law, desire and obligation.  Obligation feels hard, like work.  Desire feels easy, like rest.  That’s how I am meant to live – being myself and living in agreement with who I am.  From the place of true desire I accomplish many things.  I may look busy but I live rested.

Rest is the satisfaction that comes at the end of a day well spent (not well earned).  To spend a good day is to draw generously from the bounty of eternal days within me.  I spend them freely because of my sense of abundance and belonging. Trying to earn a sense of satisfaction holds the limitations of a false sense of self and separation – self-made good days come few and far between.

A day filled with rest and peace is drawn from the awareness of inner faith, that place within me that knows that the Father has made all things well within me,  that there is nothing in me that is not already fully returning to Him.  This is rest, this is peace, this is the atmosphere of grace that allows me to grow unhindered by the resistance of judgment and criticism.  I am finished.