Matthew 11:28-30 - 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Where do you feel the safest? Who allows you to be the most authentic you? In Matthew 11 Jesus says, “come to me.” No conditions are set. He doesn’t say get your stuff together and then come find me. He doesn’t say get your life right and then we can talk. He simply sees your heavy burden and says let me help you with that.
In linguistics there is a concept called code-switching and it means that you change the way you talk based on who you’re talking to. For example, you’re not going to ask your toddler to check the specs on the end-line for the rotary girder, just like you’re not going to ask your boss if they went pee-pee in the potty. Code-switching usually serves the purpose of instructing us on how to meet expectations and be functioning members of society. However, it all goes awry when we don’t just change the way we talk, we try to change who we are.
We are communal creatures. We want to be loved and accepted. Unfortunately, this desire leads us to hiding who we truly are, and worse who we are called to be. We work so hard to be liked that we forget that we are loved. Jesus in Matthew 11 is letting us know that He wants us to understand that we can come to Him. Even when we’ve screwed up the most, we are welcome in His presence.
So, what do you do when you are taken by a weariness of the soul? Do you put on a mask and just pretend that everything is okay? Or do you reach out to the one who sees you just as you are and loves you deeply?
Slow down. Take a breath. Find rest for your soul.