PLEASE BE GENTLE. . .

Here's my thought on Labor Day:

* Please be gentle.

Literally.

Be gentle. . .

with any work you do (or have done).

with family relations.

with activities in the heat.

with those hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill.

with those last dripping cones of the Summer.

with playing in the pool.

with your friends.

with yourself.

On this Labor Day I'm reminded of what God says about labor in regard to Him:

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest - Hebrews 4:11 (KJV)

Common translation:
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest. (NIV)
or
Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest. (NASB)

The meaning of those verses seems like a paradox. Work your way into a time of rest? Get yourself worked up to rest?

Actually, though, there is a real Rest (time of peacefulness, calmness, meditation, reclining, re-energizing, refocusing, security) in God that can come from nothing else. Even sleep can reset your bio-rhythms, but you still wake to the same difficulties and dilemmas.

The Rest that the Lord speaks of is a "peace that passes understanding" in the midst of unfathomable stress, daily worries, disappointments, and offenses. There is no comprehensible understanding for this peace because it comes only from Him, and it is a gift, when we fight (i.e. "labour") past our finite and limited view and comprehension and accept His merciful understanding and complete view.

At the top of my blog, I said that "God is always doing the most loving thing concerning you. Trust His heart toward you." Fight past what you've been told or think you've been told about what God does or doesn't want to do for you and how He loves you.

Why don't you ask Him yourself? That is the first step to "laboring" into that Rest.

He will show up.

He will answer.

In child birth, a woman labors to push through a new life - a new creation.

All that laboring is counted as "pure joy" once the child is born.

Likewise, you are guaranteed a new beginning, a new life, a new creative force when you rest in Him, and there WILL BE a "pure joy" on the other end of trusting God with yourself for the first or hundreth time.

So, on this Labor Day. . .Please be gentle.

************************

On a purely utilitarian note, I ask the same of you with me here in this blog.

Please be gentle.

As an English Teacher, I know how to work the correct "format" of any possible writing, and I can grade and edit with the best. In this venue, though, I am a fellow sojourner who is still learning her informal and interpersonal voice on this blog.

It is a bit intimidating and daunting to discover this voice when you've made a career of "formally" molding the writing of others for many years.

My writings and posts here won't be perfect, and I don't really want them to be.

There will be moments of perfection and moments where you may shake your head in disbelief at my attempts at creativity, uniqueness, and honesty. Some of my thoughts and writings will fall flat and may disappoint.

I simply want a place where I can let my hair down and still be accepted - mistakes and all.

The last time I checked, the only "Perfect Person" was Jesus, so. . .

Please be gentle with me.