Well, school has certainly been busy the last month.

A lot has been going on, mostly good, certainly formative, but overwhelming at times (as in, several times a week).

And in the course of about two weeks, I heard this verse quoted three times, and I began to think it was something I needed to hear:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28

I’ve been realizing I need to learn how to rest.

I’ve been realizing that being overworked and stretched to the limits is less heroic, as I would like to think, and in reality more, well, wrong. Not how things are meant to be.

It is wrong not to recognize that my strength has limits.

It is wrong not to recognize that I can do nothing unless I abide in Christ, that the strength I have depends on him.

Dust returns to dust and the flower fades. I am subject to hunger, sickness, the need for sleep, aging, and one day I will die.

All men are sinners. There is darkness hiding in my heart.

So today, and this week, and in my life, do I trust that beyond me there is a strength of unfailing love that is made perfect in my weakness?

Can I trust that where I fail short Christ is victorious, and that his victory is a generous victory?

Can I rest in that grace?

Can I be defined by that grace?

What does that mean, for the posture of my heart, for my schedule this week, for the way I see others, for how I deal with business and failure and stress?

This, I pray that Christ will teach me, that I may slow down long enough to hear his voice, and that I may be humble enough to take his words to heart, about work and rest, and, again, about how to live life well, as he meant for me to live.

Well, since this all really has to do with the subject of humility, I think it would be good to share some of the sayings of the Desert Fathers (early monastics from the 4th century). We read these for class a couple weeks ago:

“A certain brother came to Abbot Poeman and said: What ought I to do, Father? I am in great sadness. The elder said to him; Never despise anybody, never condemn anybody, never speak evil of anyone, and the Lord will give you peace.”

“Abbot Alonius said: Humility is the land where God wants us to go and offer sacrifice.”

“It was said of one of the elders that he persevered in a fast of seventy weeks, eating only once a week. This elder asked God to reveal to him the meaning of a certain Scripture text, and God would not reveal it to him. So he said to himself: Look at all the work I have done without getting anywhere! I will go to one of the brothers and ask him. When he had gone out and closed the door and was starting on his way an angel of the Lord was sent to him, saying: The seventy weeks you fasted did not bring you any closer to God, but now that you have humbled yourself and set out to ask your brother, I am sent to reveal the meaning of that text. And opening to him the meaning he sought, he went away.”

“A brother asked one of the elders: What is humility? The elder answered him: To do good to all those who do evil to you. The brother asked: Supposing a man cannot go that far, what should he do? The elder replied: Let him get away from them and keep his mouth shut.”

“Abbot John used to say: We have thrown down a light burden, which is the reprehending of our own selves, and we have chosen instead to bear a heavy burden, by justifying our own selves and condemning others.”