Come to me - Tuesday Theology: From Stressed to Blessed

Are you a “what if” type?

What if the money runs out? What if I lose my job? What if someone leaves me?

Fear of the future is the last of the seven things we've looked at in this series. And in a way the most exhausting of them all.

Because it's about something that hasn't happened yet, and maybe never will. We spend today's strength worrying about a day that hasn't come.

The seventh and final Tuesday in From Stressed to Blessed. We end where David ends. And where Jesus takes over.

David closes Psalm 23 by looking ahead in a completely different way than fear does:

"Your goodness and faithful mercy follow me all my life. And I get to live in your house as long as I live." (Psalm 23:6)

You can meet your future in two ways.

You can say: what if everything goes wrong?

Or you can say: God's goodness and mercy follow me all the way, and even if everything else fell apart, I will in the end live with him.

Those are your two options. See the future through the eyes of fear, or see it through God's.

It's not just positive thinking. It's a choice about what you expect from God.

And expectation has another word: faith. When you expect God to finish his work in you, you live in faith instead of in fear.

And here the whole series points toward one invitation. Jesus says:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take the yoke I lay on you, and learn from me, for I am humble and self-giving. Then you will find rest for your souls. My yoke will help you, and my burden will feel light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

Notice the first thing he says. Come to me.

Not come to church. Not come to a course. Come to me.

And then that word so many stumble over: yoke. A yoke is the piece of wood that harnesses two oxen together, so they can pull a load as one.

When I was younger, I misunderstood the verse. I thought Jesus was offering me yet another burden to carry. Take my yoke upon you — I've got plenty of my own, thanks.

But that's not what he's saying. Jesus has no problems he needs help with.

When he says take my yoke upon you, he means: let me harness myself alongside you. I'll share the load. I'll pull with you.

And that changes everything. Because when you're harnessed together with Christ, you go in the same direction and at the same pace.

And those are exactly the two places it goes wrong for us. We go in the wrong direction, and we go at the wrong pace.

At his side you drive neither into the ditch nor off the edge. He keeps you on the road, and he keeps the speed down, so you don't burn out.

After seven Tuesdays, in the end it isn't about seven techniques. It's about one person.

You don't have to carry it alone anymore.

What's the burden you're still dragging along on your own — that you could bring to him today?

What has spoken to you most in this series? Feel free to write it in the comments.

Come to him. Not to more work. To rest.