Finding Rest Over A Cup Of Coffee
I was sitting across the table in a coffee shop in Indianapolis recently with one of my good friends. As we caught up on life and waited for our scalding-hot coffee to cool down, our conversation turned to the busy-ness of the last 3 months of the year. In many ways the fourth quarter of the year can feel like a sprint of events and holiday celebrations. It's tiring no matter what your profession or social life looks like.
And that's how I'm feeling this year.
Just exhausted.
Now it's not always bad things that wear us out right? Very often it can simply be an over-commitment to good things that causes us to get worn out.
We say "Yes" to everyone and end up failing to prioritize the most important things in our lives.
So as this friend and I were talking, he shared with me a Psalm from the Bible that came to his mind. It was Psalm 16 (you can read it here).
And the phrase that stood out to me as he read it was:
"Lord, you alone are my portion."
Portion?
The word used there (manah) carries the meaning of our ration. What we need. Something that is simply: enough.
God is enough.
He's all we need.
And for those of us who follow Jesus Christ (and most religious folk in general), we can often say that God is our portion. That all we need is God.
Not God plus...
- A significant other
- A better paying job
- A better house
- More friends
- A better career
- A better education
- Just a little more money
- More authority or a higher status
But simply God.
Period.
Do we really live that way though?
I don't think so. Especially when life gets busy. We focus on the to-do lists and default into more selfish desires.
But, as it's been said many times, the man who has God and all the world has to offer has no more than the man who has God and nothing.
And when we get to the point of God being enough, when He is our portion, we find rest.
Not because the demands of the world grow less, but because we come to a point of realizing what is most important in our lives - and in the lives of others.
We find rest when we stop demanding of the world what can only be found in God.
So find your portion. Stop chasing it in the world.
Find it in God. And find rest.
