One week before Christmas: Is the tree decorated, lights up? Christmas cards sent out, gifts purchased and wrapped? Christmas meals and activities planned? Whew! Sounds like you are ready for a rest! But as you lie your head down, do more to-do lists pop in your head? Where oh where can you find rest?

During this last year with leukemia I’ve gone through phases where certain medications were needed to manage one condition but at the cost of my sleep. And there have been other times, like now, when the medications made me too sleepy, and very little ‘awake’ time for activity. Then there were those exasperating times when two medications were needed, one keeping me wired and awake and the other making me drowsy. It is quite the balancing act! And where do we find real rest?

It seems the answer is both simple and evasive. Jesus says simply, “Come to me all of you who are weary and heavy laden. And I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) Coming to Jesus involves leaving the rest of the world, our worries and preoccupations, our ambitions, our lists, even our pain, behind. Interesting, how we sometimes cling to these thoughts that we know are robbing us of peace. It involves suspending all this for a season, while we allow ourselves to drift into God’s presence.

What does that mean to you, to drift into God’s presence? Perhaps you can imagine an overcoat you have where every pocket is overfilled with plans and worries. As you intently hang up that coat in the closet and shut the door, can you see yourself walking away and trusting the outcomes of those concerns to God? That is the path to God’s presence.

Can you feel yourself warming to his presence as you lie down and contemplate how faithful God is, or the nature of his everlasting love for you? Can you let your muscles relax as you realize that no day, no matter how stressful it had been, has ever completely overcome you. You’ve made it through every one of them! Can you feel a gentle smile form on your face as you start listing everything for which you are thankful? I think it is a very long list once you start! These too are paths to God’s presence.

“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13

Let your mind rest in the thought of this goodness.