Daily Devotions

At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:25-30

I love road trips. I love traveling light. I don’t like to stop. I just like to ride, watching the miles pass beneath me, letting my mind wander where it will. Especially when I’m out west, I look across the land and wonder what it would have been like to be among those first pioneers as they slowly made their way to a new way of life.

I really can’t imagine sustaining life before electricity and refrigeration and a gas station every few miles. A diet where everything was made from scratch. Drinking lukewarm water all summer long. Hearing little to nothing about the wider world.

This text brings all of this to mind for me as we listen in on Jesus’ prayer life. He is grateful that those who think themselves “wise and intelligent” don’t know as much as they think they do. What matters is what God reveals, not what they discover on their own or what they make up out of whole cloth.

As I get older, I appreciate this text more and more. I often realize that I was really smart back in 1995. That is the last time I remember being on the top of my game. Every year now I realize that I know less and less. That what I thought for sure about has now been proven wrong. That very little of my “unlearning” has been replaced by new learning.

When I am on a road trip I’m able to disengage from life. I check in from time to time, maybe read the paper at a truck stop café, call Kelley a couple of times a day, but largely I am just on my own. I retreat back into a simpler day when the cares of the world weren’t such an assault on our imaginations. When we didn’t know what we didn’t know and we were OK with that.

Ultimately, the destination for every road trip is home. And each time, to quote the poet:

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

Through the unknown, remembered gate

When the last of earth left to discover

Is that which was the beginning;

At the source of the longest river

The voice of the hidden waterfall

And the children in the apple-tree

Not known, because not looked for

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness

Between two waves of the sea.”

At the end we finally discover that we are not as on our own as we imagine – we have been carried along the whole way. That the burdens we imagine are far more imaginary and self inflicted than we realize – and so easily laid aside. That the great secret, the knowledge we spend a lifetime seeking, is simply this: We are loved.

Let us pray: Gracious Lord, you see our pretensions and our strivings. You see our pride and our hypocrisy. You see our struggles and our confusion. You invite us to lay it all down. To let it all go. To come to you for rest. Right now, in this moment, let us feel your love and, in that, find peace. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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