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How In The World Can We Find Rest For Our Souls? – Tara Dickson

Jobs are lost, pandemics hit, loved ones walk out the door and we are left grasping for rest for our souls. If we have learned anything of late, I think we could say, “Life is not something we can control.” Any measure of peace from thinking we could was false sense.

My oldest daughter was only 2 weeks away from delivering our first grandbaby when her world exploded over night. Details too horrible to share came to light and she would soon become a single mama. A little over a year later we were just about to ring in the New Year when my husband’s words became very confused and he couldn’t walk up the stairs. One trip to the ER later and a mass showed up on the CT scan.

Taking a walk changes my physical perspective and acts as the reminder I need to shift my internal one as well. I move and breathe and rest my eyes on what I pass. I find the beauty in each detail; the line of the roof, the church bell, the date stamped in the side of the building. Or, I catch the eye of a passerby not looking away in discomfort, but smiling directly at them to watch their surprised delight.

One day, I found myself alone, my feet finding the path my daughter and I always walk together. Nearing the end of the walk I paused to snap a picture of “my spot.” It’s this lovely place where the creek wanders, and the water trips across the rocks making its own kind of music. The birds can’t contain their delight and they join in the chorus. It was early evening and the sun was sinking casting shadows beyond the tree trunks while the sunlight shimmered on the leaves in a sort of dance. I sighed.

It was an exhale of all the things, and my Savior brought this truth to my hear: Daughter you do everything to produce something, as if you need to prove your worth to me.

It took a moment for that to sink in. But it was true. Even the moments I chose to rest my eyes were to produce more energy so I could work harder. I couldn’t remember when I did something just for the sheer delight of it. Even my walks had to be a certain length to qualify as “exercise.”

Our Lord doesn’t call us to criticize us but to call us to a higher place. You know it’s so much easier to see the world around us when we are on top of a hill and not stuck in the trenches.

So, I’m sharing that calling with you friend. He is not a respecter of people and the freedom he wants for one daughter is the freedom He wants for all his daughters.

He is calling us to a state of rest! Not the absence of a job, but a place free of striving. It’s a place where we spend time with him because we long to know that the secret to rest is being still, and knowing who is God. It is He and not I.

“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.” Matthew 11:29

Tara Dickson is a recent widow and mother of four. She began her writing journey after her husband went to Heaven in 2016 following a brief battle with brain cancer. What began as a way to testify of God’s goodness during her season of suffering, quickly turned into a passion to equip both children and adults with a hope in Jesus to carry them through hard times.
She makes her home in Franklin, TN where the hills are green and the barns are plenty.
You can find Tara’s words of hope on her, “Seek and Savor” podcast, www.taradickson.com
IG @tara_dickson.
She is also a devotional writer for The Joyful Life magazine and a host for the Widow Mama Collective on FB

This article is one from the rest issue of iola. Read more and purchase your copy here.