I'm sitting here avoiding my "to do" list gazing around my room, feeling the soothing peace that comes from within, the first sparks of tiredness from the early winter evening, and a tinge of anxiety from any thought related to academia or work. I had lunch with friends this afternoon, but with my friends long gone, my roommate off in some unknown place, and Eric out of town on business, I am very much alone. It is the first Friday I have been alone in quite sometime, but it's not so bad, it's actually kind of nice tonight.

There is only a brief lull before the phone will ring again, before I will feel the urge to move for something -- the tv, the refrigerator ...

These quiet moments are the ones when a hot cup of tea is nice, with a blanket to snuggle up to, a book to read, and music in the background. But sometimes these quiet moments are better filled with nothing. I find myself so, well, hyper, that I am actually uncomfortable in a moment where I can stop. Where I can rest. Where nothing is expected of me. It is like the itch to speak that I develop when there's ten seconds of silence in a conversation with someone (perhaps even five). It is so hard for me to slow down until my head hits the pillow. Even then I find myself thinking of the silliest of intricacies: I never called that person, my clothes are still at the dry cleaners, do I have anything left in the fridge to pack a lunch tomorrow, I wonder how late it is now ...

It's hard to find peace in our lives. It's hard to find rest.

God promises us peace, telling us to cast our burden's on him. He also states "All who come to me, I will give you rest." I've read those words before, carved in peaces of wood that look like they were crafted in a booth at a snazzy state fair. I've seen the words printed neatly on late-eighties styled plaques that hang on people's walls. The words make me think of an image of Jesus seated neatly and stately, a halo around his head, children looking at him in awestruck-wonder. But have I believed those words for more than a day, or even an hour? Have I lived as though those words are true? I can honestly say I need those words, I have needed them all along; all I had to do was ask and believe. God wants to give us rest. He wants to take our burdens. It's that simple. It's that good.