For the past several years I have been greatly blessed by The Advent Project, part of Biola University’s Center for Christianity and the Arts. The following is a devotional from December 15, 2020 which greatly encouraged me, and I pray it will be sweet for your soul, too. I have scattered photos above and throughout the post of my beloved French santons, carrying their wares to offer to the Christ Child. The above santon is dear Saint James whose relics in Santiago, Spain inspired the Camino pilgrimage in 800 AD.

THE MESSIAH’S INVITATION 

Matthew 11:28-29
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 

“I’m Zoomed out!”

As 2020 mercifully comes to an end, we all feel a deep fatigue or weariness spurred on by social distancing, living on top of each other in tight quarters, home schooling, fogged up glasses caused by masks, and yes, endless Zoom meetings: “Tom, you’re muted.”  All of us feel off. Tired.

Here’s a secret: we were weary long before COVID-19.

This universal weariness is powerfully articulated by some of the giants of Christian thought.  In his Confessions Augustine writes, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you.” Blaise Pascal notes that our constant craving is a signal that “we have an idea of happiness but we cannot attain it.” The simplest expression comes from King Solomon who writes that without God everything—wisdom, riches, power, status—is “vanity” or chasing after the wind (Ecc. 1:2). 

No one is immune to this pervading sense of disappointment, or fatigue from endless chasing. “There comes a time when one asks,” notes the great atheist thinker Jean-Paul Sartre, “even of Shakespeare, even of Beethoven, ‘Is that all there is?’” Such feelings are not limited to philosophers. Award-winning novelist John Cheever asserts, “The main emotion of the adult American who has all the advantages of wealth, education, and culture is disappointment.”

“Enough” screams Margaret Adams Parker’s striking painting of people worn down and weary.  One woman—with hands open—looks up in desperation. You can almost see her mouthing the words over and over: “Enough, enough, enough.”

It is only against this backdrop do Jesus’s words carry their full import: “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” What type of rest does Jesus offer and how can it help in such turbulent times?

One of the key mistakes easy to make in times of social distancing and isolation is to merely pass the time. How can we get our minds off COVID spikes, school openings and closings, periodically barren store shelves, and the rise and fall of the Stock Market?  To cope we quickly turn to leisure and amusement so prevalent in our tech savvy world—Facebook, TikTok, Amazon Prime, Hulu, The Mandalorian, and so on. Christian writer Gordon MacDonald offers a somber warning to us as we hunker down and shelter once again, “Since we have not understood that rest is a necessity, we have perverted its meaning, substituting for the rest that God first demonstrated things called leisure or amusement. These do not bring any order at all to the private world. Leisure and amusement may be enjoyable, but they are to the private world of the individual like cotton candy to the digestive system. They provide a momentary lift, but they will not last.” There may not be anything wrong with passing time during lockdown by bingeing on the newest Netflix craze, but after the last episode ends we’ll still feel a tiredness at the soul level. The more we yoke—a wooden harness used on farming animals to keep them in step—ourselves to mere leisure, we’ll be tired and longing for more. “Our hearts are restless,” echoes Augustine. Amusement must be balanced with rest.

Though not opposed to leisure or amusement, Jesus offers “rest for our souls.” This rest doesn’t ban amusement or suddenly make Zoom meetings exhilarating. Yoking yourself to Jesus puts everything in a different context and helps us walk in step with him as we face daily challenges.  We find rest as we seek to learn from Jesus in the midst of a pandemic knowing these trying times are being redeemed by God and used to facilitate our discipleship to Jesus. “The great thing,” suggests C.S. Lewis, “if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own’, or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life – the life God is sending one day by day.” That perhaps, is the key. To see Zoom meetings, foggy glasses, and social distancing not as interruptions or something we try to push aside with high-tech amusement, but the Master’s lesson plan for this particular day. Such a perspective will give us soul rest long after the pandemic is—thankfully—over.

Prayer
Jesus, what do you have for me this day?  How can I view these present struggles not as interruptions, but opportunities to be yoked to you?  Help me change my perspective and find rest knowing you are redeeming these times and daily interruptions.
Amen   

Tim Muehlhoff
Professor of Communication
Biola University Co-director of the Winsome Conviction Project

You can find all of these daily Advent devotionals here. Each devotional combines Scripture, art, poetry, and music with a devotional like the one above. These devotionals continue through January 6.

I’m wishing you wonder and joy amid tears and confusion, hope and healing amidst pain and suffering, and eyes that can see the Babe in Bethlehem and worship His coming in the midst of a pandemic.

O Come let us adore Him, Christ our Lord!

ELIZABETH MUSSER writes ‘entertainment with a soul’ from her writing chalet—tool shed—outside Lyon, France. Find more about Elizabeth’s novels at www.elizabethmusser.com and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and her blog