Resting in Christ: Austin Shanley
Or: Lessons Learned from Matthew 11:28
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
During Spring Retreat of 2023, I felt more restless than I ever had. Many burdens I was carrying hit a breaking point on the final day of the retreat. For the majority of the school year, I struggled to find the balance between my work responsibilities and my Discipleship Team responsibilities. I developed high expectations of myself for spiritual maturity because I was considering a future in full-time ministry. On top of that, I hadn’t had a good night's sleep since the retreat started. On the final day of the retreat, while everyone else was in the main hall listening to Ryan’s sermon, I was on the other side of the campground trying to clear my head. Eventually, I returned to the main hall and listened to the rest of the sermon and shed many tears. Once the sermon was over, we packed our things and headed back to The Wesley. During my quiet time the following morning, I returned to a verse that I had been praying over all year long: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). I was hoping that maybe this time I would finally understand what Jesus meant by “rest.” And then it happened. In an instant, I was overcome with joy and a sense of total freedom.
My misunderstanding of this verse was that I thought Jesus was talking only about physical rest. That was probably due to my struggling to find balance between my responsibilities at The Wesley, work, and other general responsibilities that come with simply being an adult. However, Jesus knew the kind of rest that I needed was much deeper than just sleep and relaxation. After spending some more time reflecting on this verse, I was able to discern the deeper valleys of my restlessness and learn some valuable lessons. Here are some of the lessons that I learned.
Lesson #1: Everyone has expectations for you, but we are allowed to decide which expectations are reasonable.
The only expectations we should care about are the ones given to us by God. Sometimes, it will mean that we will have to favor one responsibility over another. Sometimes we will have to sacrifice overtime at work to serve our church. Sometimes we will not be available as much at church so we can spend more time with family. Sometimes we won’t be able to eat dinner with our family because of a work emergency. It all depends on which responsibilities should be prioritized in order to be most faithful to God. Unfortunately, those decisions are hardly ever black and white. Nevertheless, it is impossible to please everyone. I experienced this when my boss assigned me an ambitious project with a narrow time frame. I knew if I wanted to finish the project on time, I would have to pull too much overtime. However, this would have conflicted with my responsibilities to the Wesley, which I believed to be more important. I ended up explaining to my boss that I would either need more time for the project or to reduce its scale. Thankfully, he agreed to the latter.
Lesson #2: Sanctification is an act of the Holy Spirit. We cannot rush the process.
Expectations set by others is one problem, but expectations we set for ourselves can be an even greater and messier problem, especially when it comes to our sanctification. God tells us we “must be holy, for He is holy” (1 Pet 1:16), but rarely do we expect today to be the day we are able to live to that standard. However, most people tend to have a certain level of holiness which they expect from themselves. This becomes a problem when we fail to meet our own standard, let alone God’s. When this happens, our failure tends to drag us down, and we start to doubt we will ever grow from it. What we fail to realize in that moment is we want our spiritual growth to be linear. It is filled with ups and downs. Sometimes we will be proud of how much we have grown, and other times we will be disappointed with ourselves for committing a sin we thought was in the past. In these moments, it is important to remember sanctification is completely dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit.
My potential calling to full-time ministry elevated this problem. While I am thrilled at the opportunity to serve God in this capacity, I’m also quite nervous I will not have the spiritual maturity necessary to be in that kind of role. But God in His word says that it is He that “works in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). Therefore, my responsibility is to have faith God will prepare me for the work He has set before me.
Lesson #3: In order to experience God’s rest, we have to believe that we have already received it.
One of the characteristics of God I love the most is how bold and ambitious He is with His promises. In most instances, He isn’t promising us something we will receive. He is telling us if we have placed our faith in Christ, then we already have received it. For example: Mark 11:24 tells us, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” John 8:12 says, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.” John 14:27 says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” This concept applies to our verse Matt 11:28. If we have come to Him, then we already have His rest. Most of the time, we don’t get to experience this rest because we still live as if we don’t have it yet. This is a lie. When Jesus put an end to our sins on the cross, all of our reasons for anxious toil were on the cross with Him.
Of course, my knowledge of what it means to rest in Christ is far from complete. There are still times where I work in anxiety rather than with confidence, but that number seems to be decreasing, and I find now my faith is more resilient than it used to be. The practice of Lectio has been a major contributing factor to this. Lectio each day has become a way to accept God’s peace and rest He has given me, which also helps me have peace throughout the day. I pray and believe that these three lessons will be ones I remember throughout my entire life, and I pray that you too will accept and believe in His rest.
Austin Shanley is a dedicated disciple of Christ and friend to us at The Wesley. A member of this year’s Discipleship Team, he has a passion for encouraging and leading others in their faith. Austin enjoys mountain biking, fishing, playing video games, and hanging out with friends. He is currently enrolled in his senior year at LA Tech. We’re blessed to have him in our community!