Unbreakable

Uncut Diamonds

Matthew 11:29, “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.”

Rest for my soul… what a concept. Wouldn't rest for my soul be found easiest if there were no people or relationships in my life? After all, isn’t it people who created the unrest to begin with? Who wants to be gentle and humble like Christ in dealing with people? It took a lifetime to build the walls, to create the response, to suppress the feelings… why would anyone want His yoke if it means undoing the unrest?

It amazes me the patterns God has created in life. Take relationships for example. Every relationship follows five basic steps. The first step being romance, that short period of time with the relationship is too good to be true. Waking up from Romance comes the doubt phase. Intellect, hurts, walls, the wounded soul takes over and the relationship is marked by doubt. Pressing on the parties find themselves in an epic struggle for control. The power struggle phase is where the parties struggle for identity and fight against the influence and control of the other parties. If the relationship survives it is followed by agreeing to disagree. Both parties have dug in, and perhaps only for the sake of peace or the relationship differences are tolerated, contrary opinions are allowed to reluctantly exist. Finally there is the possibility for the honeymoon. The final stage is when all the parties realize they were made for each other and could not exists apart from one another.

This is very much an image of all human relationships, and an image of our relationship to Christ as it evolves. But what does it have to do with rest for our souls?

Rest for our souls is inhibited by the power struggle and the agree to disagree phase. Our wounds trigger as God confronts our ego boundaries and emotional walls. We struggle, we think with a person, but reality is we struggle with God. Our ego inflated soul stands in the way finding rest, but rather kicks against the goads, fights for position, reacts to what it thinks is salt on the wounds.

I have spent a lifetime building emotional walls, denying godly feelings, and planning reaction based on some childhood experiences. Sexual victimization, being bullied, and rejection caused me to condition myself to being unbreakable. Never again would I feel the pain. On the contrary I took the position that it is better to give than to receive when it comes to pain. And yet God has a much different plan. He brings the power struggle into my life. And I fail, and fail, and fail, until something wakes me up to the truth of the situation. God is at work. Can’t we agree to disagree? Can’t there be an easier way than to take on once again the humble and gentle yoke of Christ?

There cannot, because we are made for each other. We are made to have my wound be revealed by your wound so that Christ can bring rest to our souls. Picking up the yoke of surrender brings that rest to our soul, and life to our spirit. The yoke of surrender is where the unbreakable is broken, where the cross is born(e), and where the resurrection begins. The yoke is the diamond cutting the diamond, the end being glorious.

Unbreakable is an illusion. It is a lie of restless soul. We are all breakable. The question is will be break willingly, or by force.