Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
“All the gifts of God are good. But if we rest in them, rather than in Him, they lose their goodness for us.”
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) in Thoughts in Solitude (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999) 47.
The paradox of God’s blessings, especially material ones, is that we often find our rest in them, rather than in Christ.
We do just what God’s people did in the wilderness. We worship the golden calf, instead of the God who provided it.
In modernity, we pile up wealth and possessions, and as Merton puts it, the gifts “lose their goodness for us.”
God, thank you for your good gifts. By your Holy Spirit, help us show the world how to rest in Christ by using your gifts faithfully. Amen.