An educator's work is not easy. No matter our role, we have a great responsibility to make the best choices, to select the best strategies and activities, to predict every possible scenario in order to head off misconceptions, behavior problems, and misunderstandings. We are to supervise, lead, love, be flexible, yet firm, be interesting, fun, and rigorous. We have to know our students' strengths and weaknesses, while also supporting them emotionally. We are to communicate, collaborate, and be on the hunt for what works. Wow! Who can do all that and ever rest? I am exhausted just thinking about the weight of our work. But seriously, what is a person to do? Freak out? Worry? Panic? Whine? Complain? Give up? Run? Lash out? Cry?
No, we need to learn how to experience rest. If all we needed was physical rest we can always take a nap, but not at school. If we needed only emotional rest, we can always take a vacation, but not until Fall Break or Spring Break. We need it now. How can we find rest while doing our work right now?
Matthew 28, Jesus says,“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
We will experience rest when we take Jesus up on his offer to take his yoke upon us. When we think about a yoke, we usually think of a heavy wooden contraption that keeps us connected with another to do hard work. It doesn't sound very fun or comfortable for that matter. But Jesus' yoke is the yoke of relationship.
James Botts, in his sermon titled, "Rest For the Stressed", breaks the meaning of the yoke down well. He says the yoke symbolizes the following:
1. Connection “Be with Me.” Yokes are made for two, not one. We were not meant to go through life living apart from God. His yoke fits well and is lighter than the one we’ve been pulling by ourselves. Be connected to Jesus!
2. Direction “Follow Me.” The idea of a yoke pictures the forward motion of two connected together. You cannot be yoked to Jesus and go your own way anymore. We follow Him and His direction for our life. Follow Jesus!
3. Cooperation “Work with Me.” To be yoked together means that we cooperate with His work. Before we come to Him, we were living for this side of eternity. Now we are joined to His work and discover that our lives make an eternal impact.
To close, I challenge you to recognize that it is a mistake for us to attempt to do our work by yourself in a single collar. God never intended us to work alone. A yoke is a neck harness for two, and the Lord Himself pleads to be One of the two in your yoke. He wants to share the responsibility we have to do all those things listed above. The secret of peace, rest, and victory is found in tossing off the single collar of “self” and accepting Jesus' relaxing “yoke.”
Dear Heavenly Father,
We know you see the weight of our work in schools. Help us to rely on You to pull the load with us as we go through our daily challenges and struggles. Let us be the people who do not give in to fear and emotions, but to be those who are confident that You are in control and all will be well. Let us show the world the unexplainable peace that only comes from resting in our relationship with You, Jesus, that they will be drawn to You and find rest for themselves.
I pray in the powerful name of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior, Amen.
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