Do I have to be alone to find rest?
Our default is to think of “Rest” in terms of escape. While there is value to stepping away, (Jesus did it) reducing “Rest” to isolation misses the bigger story of the Gospel. In the coming Kingdom “Rest” is not a nap and its certainly not isolation. The true “Rest” we long for will be experienced in community and is so much more than cessation.
This is counter intuitive. So maybe it’s easier to think in terms of peace. Peace is more than avoiding activity or people. It is experiencing order over chaos.
Though I walk in death, you are with me, you prepare a table for me. - Psalm 23
Think of a well-oiled machine, an orchestra, a garden or assembly line. These systems have an order that is beautiful and a peace that is contagious. Consider how nature reflects this to a thirty soul.
Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days, inciting at once to work and rest! Days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God. - John Muir
Is this window to rest proprietary to nature? Can work bring peace?
There is no tension between creativity and peace. No tension between creativity and work.
So then why does work seem in opposition to peace?
Our sin is to blame. It promised but destroyed peace. Everything, including work has been stained.
Part of the problem is that we treat work like an end unto itself. But our labors will never be sufficient to swallow the complexities wrought by sin. This is beyond our reach. (Which btw is part of the problem. AKA fancying ourselves too much)
Academia acknowledges the limits of our endeavors in a thing called Ashby’s Law.
Ashby’s Law, also known as the Law of Requisite Variety, examines complex systems saying: For a system to be at peace, it must be able to handle the same level of complexity found in its surroundings. A system will fail if its capacity does not match or exceed its context. The more complex the context, the greater capacity a system must have.
OK that will break your brain. What does it mean here?
Answer: The world is enormously complicated and needs suitable solutions. No one person or team is enough. This means sustainable rest will never come from work, church, finances or even family. Even religion cannot absorb the problems of the universe. Only the grand narrative of the Gospel can absorb all the variabilities of life (including your story). This is extremely liberating. If God is really big enough, then we need not fear complex problems, obscure solutions or even failure.
But God, through the amazing work of the cross, is making all things new.
Sin is not the end of the story. The cross swallows chaos and restores peace to broken systems. It makes straight the crooked. We all (me, you and everyone) introduce trauma into our systems. Constantly causing a cumflumple. Weeds in the garden, wrenches in a machine, sour untuned instruments.
And this is an amazing grace, God commissions broken people as ambassadors of rest. Whether student, teacher, barista or entrepreneur, we are peace givers in all the places we live work and play.
So… Maybe work stinks right now. But escape is not the solution. Neither is the perfect job. The rest your heart long for comes from Christ. And you have the privilege of living from that rest in the midst of the stink.
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”. - John 16:33