Come to me all you who are weary and burdened
and I will give you
r e s t.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find
r e s t for your s o u l.

I sometimes forget all about Matthew 11. Don’t we all? In this hectic, technologically-overloaded, information-based, over-scheduled, stressful world, we can always find rest for our souls, when we just go to our Father.

Brennan Manning’s best-known book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, sums it up this way, “Jesus comes not for the super-spiritual but for the wobbly and the weak-kneed who know they don’t have it all together, and who are not too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace.”

Why is grace so hard for us to remember, and to accept? We are often like David – our sin ever before us. Our weaknesses, our failures. We love the Lord, and ignore Him for days. We trust Him with our lives and then worry obsessively. We climb in bed and in the darkness run through the day’s list of regrets – things we wish we’d done or said differently.

We remember we are but dust and then…God breathes. Dust lives. In the words of Brennan Manning, faith requires the courage to accept that you are accepted. Jesus loves us just as we are, and not as we think we should be, if we can only accept it. And in the warm grace of His acceptance…we find rest.