by Charles Barnard
Rest
“Marian, I’m rested now.” Those words are from the book Shane. The context was Joe Starrett making a comment to his wife Marian after he and Shane had worked all day to rid his homestead of the one blight on his property – an enormous old, hard, stump. The stump was a “millstone” around his neck. The metaphor of a millstone around ones neck representing a burden they are carrying is not uncommon in literature. It is also symbolic of our need for rest. By rest I am referring to unburdening ourselves, which is not necessarily the same as getting our seven to eight hours of sleep each night.
Far too many of us carry burdens that we should not be carrying. We hold onto negative emotions and self-identity or self-doubts. We get got up in the trials and tribulations that are part of living letting those burdens accumulate. For some people that leads to diseases like cancer or heart disease. For my wife, there was one particular issue that she fretted over and couldn’t let go. It festered. It became her millstone and the burden she carried over the past couple of years turned into cancer. Without sharing too many details, when my wife saw people being treated disrespectfully and wrongly and the manner in which that was handled, she couldn’t digest or absorb it, which is the emotional trigger (according to the research of Dr. Ryke Hamer) for colon cancer. She needed to cut that millstone from around her neck so she could rest.
On this Sunday, I began to think about what the sabbath was supposed to be – a day of rest. The sabbath was purportedly made for man and was supposed to be kept holy. What exactly does that mean? Jesus attacked the Jewish authorities of the time for their legalistic view of the sabbath. They actually created more burdens on the people. It was not a day of rest. Without getting into the theology of the sabbath day, I would like to think about the psychology of the sabbath day.
Commentaries on the bible say that what is meant by the phrase to keep it holy is to set it apart. In other words, the Jewish people, who God originally gave the command to, were to set apart one day a week to rest. This rest was about communing with God. Communing means to “share one’s intimate thoughts or feelings with (someone), especially on a spiritual level.” Part of this is God’s desire for us to give up our burdens to him.
- “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22)
- “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles” (Psalm 34:17)
- “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).
- “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6, 7)
- “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?”
I am not implying the sabbath was the only day to cast our burdens on the lord. In fact, I would argue that was to be a daily practice, but I do believe the command was to establish a cultural norm for fellowship with family, friends, and God where we let the cares of the world go.
There is a process beyond the lip service many people give for letting their cares go. Having experienced it myself and seen the results of numerous people who let go of those “burdens” using Time-Line Therapy® techniques (among other techniques) I am convinced we humans have hard wired into us processes where we can let these emotions go and not store them physiologically. We need to build into our lives the rituals – the habits – where we do this daily.
While I have come to understand there is a deeply spiritual aspect to this that goes beyond the purely psychological, everyone needs to answer that aspect of this for themselves, but it should not prevent anyone from recognizing the need for our mental, emotional, and physical health to rid ourselves of the millstones we carry. What do you do to cut the millstones and then prevent another from being hung around your neck? Even “small” millstones can create a heavy burden. Now is a good time to let those “burdens” go.