Love God, love others. Period. Everything else hinges on these two commands; they wrap up the whole law. There are two things that I’ve been thinking through in regard to this.

It’s Labor Day and hopefully this finds you resting. Isn’t it funny that we celebrate work by resting? In fact, I think that’s exactly what the Sabbath was intended to be: a weekly celebration and enjoyment of all the things we accomplished in our labors throughout the week. This particular Labor Day is just plain bizarre. It’s the beginning of a season of a hundred decisions a day, from the schedule we keep at home or work, to how we’re going to school our children. Also, it’s an election year, and the Labor Day of election years always marks the beginning of the final campaign sprint to Election Day on November 4th. The insanity surrounding all of it simply goes without saying. It’s nuts; nothing feels normal. It feels like everything and everyone is reactionary and nothing can be planned. And yet our God loves loves loves to give His people rest. There are hundreds of verses related to His desire for our rest, but I’ll lay out two to help us decide today to rest rather than react.

He erupted into the world—encapsulated Himself in flesh and blood, subjected Himself to time in order to live the perfect life for us, so that… He could obliterate the bounds of time and flesh and meet us Spirit to spirit, dwell in and among each of us forever and always. Paul’s explanation of what the Holy Spirit means for us overwhelms me when I hold it up against the feelings of inadequacy I have as a mother to be everything to my children.

God often reminds me that He is God and I am not. He does it in many ways; through His Word, through circumstances, through discipline. Sometimes it’s a hard-learned lesson, but He is always kind to show us Who He is, and who we are in relation to Him. I think one of the kindest ways He does this is through creation. 

Over the years, I’ve come to recognize that for me, often, simply being reminded that He’s the Creator of it all is what causes me to trust Him most—especially with the things I just can’t comprehend. When I’m confronted with things about His character or in Scripture that are “too wondrous for me to know” (Job 42:3), it’s the fact of creation that brings me back to trust.

Paul’s entire mission in writing the letter to the Galatians was to plead with them to understand that for those of us who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are as Christian as we will ever get. Redeemed. Paid for by the blood of the Son of the Living God. Period. We can’t do anything to be more righteous. There are no customs we can follow, no actions we can take to make us more qualified to come before God. Jesus Christ alone qualifies us for everything.

It seems the world is burning. God silenced the world through Covid-19. He insisted we all take a break for a bit. And then the ground began to shake. Locust swarms and dust clouds from Africa, famines, racial tensions peaking and spreading across the globe, and it feels like our nation is irreparably fractured and our world collapsing. 

For me, whenever major life events take place, I can always trace a supernatural draw to Scripture occurring for a long season before the crises; so I know it’s no mistake that I am immersed in the Word of God more than I’ve ever been before. In fact, I have found it to be consistent with God’s rhythm in my life. 

So this one is for you—the young moms who are managing limited play dates in the midst of quarantine and have become the primary care giver and imagination-mate to your children. To you who are feeling guilty for not having one more moment of make believe in your tired souls. For those of you who are sure that your sanity got flushed down the pooper with the last failed attempt at potty training this week. And dare I say, this is for you, the mother of little ones who hasn’t a moment for a quiet time or devotion and if you did, you’d rather shut your eyelids for those brief moments or talk to your mom or best friend on the phone than open your Bible.