A Sweet Repose

Repose is simply a poetic word implying “a state of rest.” Literally or figuratively. A place to lay your head or the act of placing confident trust in someone or something.

Yes, I may every now and then write about various things from educational philosophy and natural history to poetry and children’s literature. Yet the spring and source of all my “brooks of thought running in all directions” is Jesus. He is the Someone and His word is the Something I place all my confident trust. He is worthy, and well proved.

It is seemingly effortless for us to skirt around the object of Someone as our trust because quite honestly, we have become that which we trust. Why look beyond ourselves when “we’ve got a pretty good thing going on here, thank you very much”?

Yet this Someone, the Lord, waits to be gracious to us (Isaiah 30:18). When we are wandering around with ourselves as the sole object of our confidence, He looks on us with compassion as though “sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). He bids us to come and find rest for our souls for He is gentle and lowly with an easy yoke and light burden (Matthew 11:28-29). His desire is to gather us “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.”

Yet, as that verse continues, we are often so unwilling (Matthew 23:37). For the simple, albeit excruciatingly difficult move toward Christ is that of turning. A 180 degree turn from our self-sufficient goal-setting trajectory to that of His.

I implore you, turn to Jesus for your rest. Humbly crawl through the structure of the beatitudes found in Matthew 5 seeing that the very first who are blessed are those who are poor in spirit. Those who see their sin-distorted hearts for what they are and turn. And then in that posture, you mourn with an attitude of “what must I do?”. And then in meekness you allow the implanted Word to save your soul (James 1:21). And then your humbled, starving soul will voraciously look for more of Him as you will join those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. It really is such a beautiful progression. And what does it say of those who hunger and thirst?

They will be satisfied. And not only that, but their appetite will have been whetted. They will have tasted and saw that it was in fact abundantly fulfilling and sweet like honey.

Need a little nudge toward what to say when you’ve been forging ahead on your own for a while? Maybe begin with Psalm 61.

“Hear my cry, O God,
listen to my prayer;
from the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I,
for you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the enemy.
Let me dwell in your tent forever!
Let me take refuge under the shelter of
your wings!” Selah

Psalm 61: 1-4

Onward and upward sweet friends.