Sunday, June 21, 2026
Hey squad, happy sunday! This is new. Trying out a little blog moment. I honestly do not care enough about webdesign to make the formatting good. Sorry if it stucks.
This week had it’s good and it’s bad. I’ve had a wonderful weekend though. I am still really enjoying being back in a good movement routiine, and eating super good food at home. Today’s little post is going to be very Jesus-y, but I encourage you to read it no matter where you are at. Who knows, maybe you could be a little motivated or curious.
Here we go…
Sometimes my mind carries extra burdens and holds onto the burdens of others a bit too much. I’m learning how to trust God more to avoid doing that and to have more inner peace. I was thinking about it today.
I wrote this around 11:00 AM; here are my raw thoughts:
For the weight of only a few people’s daily burdens feels like so much; imagine how much more the Lord loves that he would send his Son to bear and hold the burdens of us all.
The love and forgiveness and kindness in my earthly relationships is so BIG. Oh, how much more does the Father love us? I have been graced with extremely forgiving, wonderful people. And to think that my earthly relationships are a tiny fraction of the love that the Father has for me.
He died for my burden and the biggest of burdens of us all. For the greatest burdens.
The love of the Father is so much greater than I can imagine or begin to understand.
Intense sadness and grief physically hurts sometimes, and I am insanely blessed that I have not experienced much grief in my life. But wow, my Jesus.
He just wanted to be in the garden with us, to be partners.
The first thing Jesus did when he got to the right hand of God was to share the kingdom with us. That was the plan all along.
Jesus’ temperature did not rise when darkness rises or is all around. How can I maintain a calm temperature and let the comfort of the cross and the certainty of God working all things for my good set my temperature?
Okay, back to now…
Here’s a random thought. One of my favorite songs is Love Note by Abbie Gamboa.
“I sent my only son
To be with whom I love
You are all I want
The wonder of it all”
This week’s read…
This week I read “The Garden City” by John Mark Comer. I love his writing style and the perspectives he poses. This book was all about work and rest. The book starts out by helping the reader understand that “work” and “rest” existed before the fall in the Garden with Adam and Eve, where sin entered the world.
I honestly didn’t think much about what rest truly meant until my counselor asked me to define it, and I told her about what my weekly schedule looked like. She turned her head to the side and looked at me and said, “I didn’t ask you when you had free time; I asked you when you took rest”. True rest occurs when you aren’t even thinking about future labor.
I think many of us don’t know how to rest at all, and that makes it really hard to understand that God can bring us rest…because we have never experienced it. But, to be good at working, you have to be good at resting. Looks like we are all on a pursuit of rest…and I am not very good at it.
After the fall of Adam and Eve, evil entered into our world and our work. First off, Comer defines work as anything that requires labor. For example, laundry is work, and laughing with friends is rest. But he also adds that work and rest are different for different people.
Comer also guides you to know that what we do should flow from who we are and from the God-given capacity that we have. We shouldn’t work that is outside our capacity.
“What we do flows from who we are.” Garden City (Comer, John Mark) pg 41
“ When God was done working, he sat back and said, This is really good. That’s how we should view our work. So many people think of work as the curse. I hear it all the time, I hate my job. Work is the curse. But nothing could be further from the truth. Work is cursed, yes- more on that later. But work itself is the exact opposite- a blessing…And what is God’s blessing over humans? Work.”
Garden City (Comer, John Mark) pg 58
“But in a Genesis-shaped worldview- all of life is worship.” Garden City (Comer, John Mark) pg 60
“You are a modern-day Adam or Eve. This world is what’s left of the Garden. And your job is to take all the raw materials that are spread out in front of you, to work it, to take care of it, to rule, to subdue it, to wrestle, to fight, to explore, and to take the creation project forward as an act of service and worship to the God who made you.”
Garden City (Comer John Mark) pg 75
“We need to learn to embrace our potential and our limitations. Because both of them are signposts, pointing us forward into God’s calling in our life.”
Garden City (Comer, John Mark) pg 81
Don’t seek the approval of others in your labor…
“After a hard day’s labor, can you hear God whisper in your ear, ‘Well done ‘?”
Garden City (Comer, John Mark) pg 84
Enjoying things in our lives brings glory to God. They help us to become aware of the goodness and realness of God’s love. This earth is just a whisper or a breath of what will be experienced in the New Creation.
Learning to become good at your occupation and work in your life is just as important to being a disciple of Jesus as spiritual traditions are. Everything is spiritual when you believe that the world was created for us to be partners of God in the garden.
Jesus said no. The more I read scripture, the more I am comforted by the fact that many of the things that bring me earthly rest are biblical (duhhhh). God commands us to have hard conversations and not hold grudges, and Jesus said no. Love Jesus for that. We were not built to say yes or to produce outside of the capacity we were created for. We are here together because the Lord wanted us to commune with each other and him. Jesus knew what he was called to do and what he wasn’t.
“To borrow the language of Jesus, you gotta figure out what the ‘work the Father gave you to do” is. And then you need to learn the art of saying no. To do good things.”
Garden City (Comer, John Mark) pg 151
We are creatures with desires bigger than ourselves. Some people say God created us with a “God-sized hole”.
“We can’t find happiness or satisfaction or whatever it is that we’re searching for in work or in rest, apart from God.”
Garden City (Comer, John Mark) pg 214
The perfect job, relationship, pair of shoes, friendship, meal, etc will never be enough. We constantly want more.
Rest warrants healing.
“Work is a good thing, but it’s not. There’s more to life than production. There’s pleasure. Sabbath is a way to break our addiction to accomplishment. One day a week we cease all work-not just work we get paid for. We rest even from the thought of labor.”
Garden City (Comer, John Mark) pg 217
A serious Sabbath day, or “rest day,” is very rare and unfamiliar in American culture. I think that it’s unrealistic that we all can move around our schedule to truly rest for a whole day, but the Sabbath is beyond Jewish tradition in the Torah. God rested. After he created the earth. Our perfect God…rested. Comer says rest was a rhythm of the earth from the beginning of time. So, rest is crucial. Rest is something I want to be better at. It’s really hard to hear God’s voice or crave time with him when you are too busy thinking or doing. I am guilty of this.
Whether you know Jesus or have ever thought about an afterlife, listen to this: “This is what’s waiting for us. Not an eternal vacation in the sky, but an eternity of working and resting in this world completely remade from top to bottom by the Creator, ruling over the earth, side by side with Jesus himself, forever. This is the hope of Jesus”
Garden City (Comer, John Mark) pg 255
“You didn’t want Heaven without us
So Jesus You brought Heaven down
My sin was great Your love was greater
What a Beautiful Name It Is, Hillsong Worship
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV
We were created to be great. We desire to make a difference and be remembered. And I really like the shift that Comer guides you through. He wants you to go and be great, and do the greatest work you can in your field and family. BUT…
“Just remember one last thing: if your dreams are all about you, then your dreams are way too small. You need to dream larger. Larger than your job or career or net worth or name or body. You need dreams as large as Jesus’ vision of the kingdom.”
Garden City (Comer, John Mark) pg 287
So, this week I will try to go about my laundry and my work remembering the reward that Jesus placed in heaven. That working here on earth is building the kingdom. I can build the kingdom in daily practices that look ordinary to others. That’s the beauty of knowing Jesus. Nothing is ordinary.
And I don’t have to worry about anything because Jesus has won, and he’s written my story and already offered to bear the burdens of us all if we choose Him.
Very cool stuff. So, enjoy rest and work this week. Let yourself enjoy the blessings you have and let them increase your wonder of this life and the glory of God. And if your current “labor” sucks, let it still bring glory to God…and I will try to do the same.
You are loved. You are valued. You are chosen.
And if no one told you today, you look good girl (or boy).
Making Your Mind 
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