Friday, October 24, 2014

STORIES OF BLESSING #9

WRITING YOUR STORIES OF BLESSINGS

When you write your stories of blessing, you are writing your life story. You are writing a memoir (of any length) and are doing so with "blessings" as your theme.

Is there a more important story to share than of your blessings?

Just a thought.

-------------

BIBLE BLESSINGS FOR THE TIRED #2

Written 2014-10-23 09:28:29, Thursday

Oh, how I long for the blessing of rest and I so thoroughly need it. I carry a great deal on my shoulders right now and it's weighing down my mind. Never mind the lack of sleep over the past several weeks.

{Journaling prompt: How about you? How are you feeling? Are you tired and/or burdened? What are you carrying?}

Let's be realistic, though, and honest with ourselves. I think we could all use more rest. The question, though, is how can we get more rest? And, is it possible to get total rest--and is it possible before we die?

Those are questions to ponder and I hope we will discover the answer in the next several weeks.

COFFEE'S REPRESENTATION AND SIGNIFICANCE IN MY LIFE

What I do when I'm tired, even the weariness is caused by more than physical exhaustion, is I drink coffee. It's for what the coffee represents more than anything.

{Journaling Prompt: What rituals do you do when you are tired?}

Here I sit with my coffee to me left, in my favorite turquoise mug, and I reach and take a huge gulp of coffee, desperate for the hit of coffee. Not the caffeine, for decaf does the same for me, but for the idea of the coffee. After all, I have wonderful, blessed memories of coffee. It is what I use as a reminder to pray, it makes me think of friends and family, and the warmth and taste are a feel-good for me.

Coffee is a reminder to slow down, relax, and enjoy life and living.

I just took a huge gulp as I hoped it would wash me with relief and pure enjoyment. And, almost spit it out. I got too sidetracked praying, counting my blessings, journaling, etc. that I have forgotten to drink my coffee. Now, it's cold. (Sigh.) Consequently, I will drink it as fast as I can and start over with a fresh, warm cup. (Pardon me for a moment, please.)

What a reminder of how important it is not to depend on anything, other than the only one who is completely dependable: God and His Word. Even my simple ritual of drinking a cup of coffee added to my tiredness.

So, what now?

Is it possible to really find rest?

How do we find rest in the totally dependable God?

I already shared a couple of verses, but let's look at them in a different version and see what more we can learn from these verses:

Matthew 11:28-30 New Living Translation (NLT)

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

New Living Translation (NLT)

Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

What a biblical passage of hope and blessing. I feel better after reading it, for a moment at least. However, I start to allow these verses to roll around in my mind and I realize how all of that sounds really, really good. But, what does this mean to my life today? How does it apply? And, does it?

I decide to look at the previous version of the Bible to see if I can find the answers there. Care to join me? Turn there now, please.

Take note of the differences between the two.

Then, look at this version and do the same between all three:

Matthew 11:28-30 GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

28 “Come to me, all who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. 29 Place my yoke over your shoulders, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble. Then you will find rest for yourselves 30 because my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

And, one final version, unless you want to look up more, of course.

Matthew 11:28-30 Expanded Bible (EXB)

28 “Come to me, all of you who are ·tired [weary] and ·have heavy loads [overburdened;T heavy-laden] and I will give you rest. 29 ·Accept my teachings [L Take my yoke upon you]and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in ·spirit [heart], and you will find rest for your ·lives [souls; Jer. 6:16]. 30 ·The burden that I ask you to accept [L …because my yoke] is easy; ·the load I give you to carry [L and my burden] is light.”

Expanded Bible (EXB)

{Journaling prompts: What all have you learned about this passage? What does it mean to you and your life?}

In the next several blog posts, we will take a look at this passage and break it down so we can capture all of the blessings from this passage. Stay tuned.

-------------