Ruth’s walk with Jesus is the real deal and she’s one of my most cherished friends, a deep well of wisdom. Her articulation of the tension we all live in—between where we are and where we long to be—resonates so deeply with my own experience. It’s my true joy to welcome my dear sister, Ruth, to the farm’s table today…

Guest Post by Ruth Chou Simons

I recently saw an old photograph of me from college.

“Even when our lives are full, we feel as if we’re missing something, and we go searching for more. “

My hair was short—a pixie cut, they called it. I knew that look by another name. It was the I’m-so-frustrated-I-don’t-know-what-to-do-so-I’ll-chop-off-all-my-hair hairdo. If I remember correctly, it was triggered by a tumultuous breakup with Troy before we got back together again.

In retrospect, the drastic haircut wasn’t purely to spite him; it was a desperate attempt to make some kind of change, any change, that might soothe my heart that had just been broken, that was restlessly looking for something. I felt impatient for change.

We’re restless people.

Even when our lives are full, we feel as if we’re missing something, and we go searching for more. 

The familiar refrain came up again the other day in a conversation with a friend:

“I feel so restless.” I’ve lost count of how many times this admission has surfaced among friends at small groups and dinner parties in recent months. And after so many years, I’ve come to hear the questions behind the statements:

“When my heart is pacing the floor, I’m really looking for a way to rest.”

Is this all there is?

How do I break out of my tedious life?

How do I get where I want to go?

Is it okay to feel discontent?

What if I’m not passionate about the life I currently have?

If restlessness is defined as “the state of being unable to stay still or be happy where you are, because you are bored or need a change,” then what I’m looking for when I’m feeling restless is relief from that unease.

Here’s the thing: I really want to be able to be still. Not just physically still…but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually still. I want to experience relief from anxious striving, worry, and the fear that the Good Life will pass me by. In a word, I’m after peace. When my heart is pacing the floor, I’m really looking for a way to rest.

What’s at the heart of our longings for change, for something different, for something more? When I peel back the layers of my restlessness, I always find, at the core, a fear that God doesn’t know best, that somehow he didn’t get the memo about what I really need, what I really want, or how my life should really turn out.

The core belief of my restlessness stems from thinking I can’t truly rest until I secure everything I think I need.

“The core belief of my restlessness stems from thinking I can’t truly rest until I secure everything I think I need.“

The first book of the Bible reveals how we all became restless in the first place. Adam and Eve had everything they could possibly desire, and, more importantly, they lived in the very presence of God.

They had unhindered fellowship with their Creator, and all of creation was at rest. God gave them access to everything except for the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. When the Serpent came to tempt Eve, he didn’t tempt her with the fruit itself; he planted a question in her mind about what the fruit could give her access to. He questioned God’s goodness and plan for Adam and Eve, and she took the bait.

She wanted to be like God, to know what he knows, to attain for herself what she didn’t fully trust God to provide. You see, Eve’s decision wasn’t a momentary lapse in judgment, and she wasn’t hypnotized by a shiny Red Delicious apple. Instead, she let herself believe that God was holding out on her, that he wasn’t yet giving his best to her. So she opted to reach out and get it for herself. She wanted more.

More than what God had provided. More than what he’d promised. More than God himself.

She was looking for more than God’s provision, but instead of giving her more, her search led to a restless longing within her and within every person since. Because of sin, Adam and Eve knew shame for the first time and experienced a feeling they had not known prior: a sense of not enough.

Without the brokenness of sin, we wouldn’t wrestle with waiting, wanting, and restlessness. The feelings themselves aren’t sinful, but the temptation to find more on our own can lead to sinful responses if we try to substitute true rest in God with comfort in anything else.

“Our restlessness may be a result of the fall, but redemption restores our ability to truly rest.“

Though sin, disbelief, discontent, and disobedience entered the world through Adam and Eve in the garden, God’s plan has always been to restore us to the relationship we were intended for and the rest we were created for. Our restlessness may be a result of the fall, but redemption restores our ability to truly rest.

We can rest because of internal change even when our circumstances haven’t changed externally.

That’s why Jesus promised true rest:

“Come to me, all 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)

Rest for your souls. Jesus offered freedom where there was bondage, spiritual rest where there was endless striving, and a sigh of relief where only anxious restlessness existed before.

His Word is true for me and you today as well—the offer still stands. When we put our hope in Jesus, we trade restless feelings about our not yets and not enoughs for his already and all-satisfying.

We trade the burden of trying to access what we think we’re missing for the rest that comes when we receive what God fully provides.

“We are made by God, for God, and to be satisfied in God.“

We can be at rest right where we are because our ability to “be still, and know that [he is] God” (Psalm 46:10) is not dependent on whether our circumstances feel restful or light. It’s wholly dependent on where we turn for true rest.

God made us to need him, to turn to him for the rest we seek.

It’s an active response to the restlessness we may feel. We are made by God, for God, and to be satisfied in God.

Like Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in thee.”

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{ Our humble thanks to Nelson Books for their partnership in today’s devotional.}