I recently gave a talk on rest. As I was preparing for the talk, the thought occurred to me how tempting it is to push past our limits. Not in a heroic way, like diving in front of bullets or pushing through exhaustion to save others. I mean in a “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” kind of way. Like when we sacrifice sleep and subsist on coffee to do less heroic things like finish a task we’ve been putting off. Or stay up late to finish that really good series on Netflix.
Throw Yourself Down
We sometimes say people are “writing checks their bodies can’t cash,” although the phrase is more often used in the context of people who do risky things like motorcycle jumps and cliff diving. The thought occurred to me that it is like we are continually throwing ourselves off cliffs and expecting God to catch us. Which of course brought me to the temptation of Christ.
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Many people link this temptation to the “pride of life” mentioned in 1 John 2:16. One way to define this would be “anything that leads to arrogance, ostentation, pride in self, presumption, and boasting.” (www.gotquestions.org/pride-of-life.html)
The Pride of Life in an Exhausted Culture
So this means anything we use to draw attention from God and his purposes to our own. And one way we do this is by ignoring the limits he has put on our bodies in this world. When we ignore sleep and rest in the name of productivity, rather than doing our best and leaving the results to God. When we punish our bodies with extreme dieting and exercise in order to meet a worldly standard of beauty. When we take the good gifts God has given us, like food and leisure, and indulge to excess to find our satisfaction there rather than in God.
All of these things are, in essence, writing checks our bodies can’t cash. We are trying to satisfy our own desires, whether it be the desire for pleasure and comfort, or the desire for recognition and admiration. We are continually putting ourselves on the throne that only God can occupy.
When Faith Looks Like Going to Bed
As I mentioned last week, it takes faith to plant a field and wait for the growth. It also takes faith to shut your computer on the important presentation you’re preparing for in order to go to bed and trust God with the results. It takes faith to sacrifice “me time” in front of the TV so you can more easily face your toddler’s early-morning wake-up call.
All of these acts require trust that God will meet your needs in the future. It requires us to accept the limits of our earthly bodies, and put our faith in the God who never sleeps or grows weary.
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