Life Recovery
““Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.””
I am a human. On the surface, there is flesh and (if you stick me) blood. There are physical features: my balding head, my Irish-red beard, my slightly (I'm trying to save face) out-of-shape body.
I need food to live, clothes to wear and keep warm, and a place to call my own. I need rest after a long day of work, and I need conversation (more than I, an introvert, am willing to admit.)
On the inside, I'm full of dreams, creativity, humor, and joy. I've been told my nature is very calming. I tend to be a very steady person: what you see is what you get. I do have my bad moments, though. I tend to not act when I should, act when I shouldn't, and can be kept prisoner by my anxieties of whether or not ends will meet.
My education is the first of my family's. I decided a Bachelors degree was enough (is it still? Probably not) when I entered the ministry.
My work is rewarding and challenging all at once. To essentially be my own boss and engage in thoughtful conversation with college students is one of my great pleasures. It is satisfying to step foot on the grounds of one of the oldest campuses in the United States and dream up the possibilities of seeing Christ glorified through the lives of tomorrow's leaders.
If there are joys, then there must be hardships. One of the biggest (and most felt) hardships has been being involved in a community of friends. It's been hard to find communal friends in the area we live in. I consider a communal friend someone who I could hang out with and share my life with and just be me. To be clear, I do have friends; they are just geographically elsewhere.
I am guilty of letting my eyes and heart stray away from Jesus, seeking for fulfillment and answers elsewhere. Most of the time, I look for those answers within myself.
The truth is, I'm a human and I'm a mess.
Reading the invitation of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30 is something I take as a kind gesture and, sometimes, almost like some appeal of a holiday away. An image of Jesus as game show host comes to mind: "Come to me! Get away with me! You'll recover your life!" (Favorite game show would have to be 'The Price is Right')
Why can it be hard to accept the invitation of Jesus?
When life has been based on performance and how well you do something, it's easy to see Jesus' invite as a prize. "Okay, how do I win?" The thing about Jesus' request is that there's no catch. It is like getting a dinner party invite in the mail from a friend who is haveing the party catered: just show up and enjoy the company!
Jesus knew the toll that his work had on himself. He constantly got away into the silent, scarce, lonely places to be with the Father. He is implying that our lives are in need of recovery, too. "Get away with me and you'll recover your life."
When we walk a tightrope of morality and law, we surrender spiritual freedom. We regress back thousands of years and are in need of animal sacrifice again to make atonement. We forfeit privileges to come before the Lord because His wrath is back on a sinful people. But it doesn't have to be this way.
Jesus comes off the sidelines where we've benched him for so long, gets in the game, and pulls off the greatest upset in the history of mankind.
Paul said in Ephesians 2 that we "were dead in our transgressions and sins...but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions."
He recovers our lives by offering his own.
