Turnaround…Returning to rest

I am not at rest today. Weary (Lam. 5:8), pain-filled (Job 30:17), wanting escape (Ps. 55:6). I am quarantined in my house, but don’t feel restfully at home. I need re-turning, returning and rest.

In Western music, home is often a musical ending. The final “authentic cadence” arrives at a musical home, the last sound. We feel its triumphant rest. It sounds finished. Sometimes, this is preceded by a turnaround or “deceptive cadence.” We think we’re headed home, but something angsty keeps intervening…then we can go home and finally rest. I’m looking for rest today.

My faith has found a resting place…I trust the Ever-living One, His wounds for me shall plead…It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me. 

A resting place. My eternal home, final cadence, final glory, a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for believers in Jesus (Heb. 4:9). Oh, I look forward to being there. But I’m here, within an angsty deceptive cadence and a song that never seems to end.

The turnaround, a deceptive cadence

Jesus beckons, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden (Mt. 11:28a). I often lingered at these words posted on a statue of Jesus in the lobby of Johns Hopkins Hospital as I walked through a nearly eight-year-long illness of degenerative despair, with no treatment, no diagnosis. The burden was a never-ending deceptive cadence. I was perpetually heavy-laden, broken. 

And I will give you rest (Mt. 11:28b).

Home is coming. It is secure, filled with covenant love, covenant promises, power, accomplished, and finished through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. The song will end gloriously and triumphantly!

But now, Come to Me was…and is…a song of turnaround. Keep going through that deceptive cadence, until home is reached in the final, final cadence of the song He gives us. Embrace the turnaround, on repeat, returning to rest. 

In returning and rest you shall be saved (Is. 30:15a). 

Re-turn. Keep turning, turn around and come toward Jesus. Come after Jesus. Repent. Turn back to His love, in the suffering. 

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Home, an authentic cadence of rest

Rest. Recover your breath as you labor, bearing the heavy burden. It’s quiet, like a butterfly gently resting for a moment. 

This is Your gift, Jesus, as I come to You. It’s inner tranquility within seemingly continual pain. It’s an authentic cadence, a going home, before the final cadence of life’s song on earth.

I can rest in the gift of Your indwelling and surrounding presence with me (Ps. 139: 5; Ex. 33:14; I Cor. 6:19). 

I can rest that You are reigning, ruling, interceding and intervening for me right now (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25).

This is the most authentic, most true cadence of rest, even when all seems overwhelming, exhausting, burdensome. Thank you, Lord Jesus.

Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling…come home…you who are weary, come home.

Like a butterfly resting for a moment, pause with me in your turnaround. Come home, back to Jesus. What is He giving you as His rest today?

Would a playlist help you this week? I’d love to email you my gift of hymns, Psalms, and spiritual songs to help you sing to Jesus as a pause. Sign up here if it it would encourage and bless you.