Worn Down? Spiritual Refreshment in Times of Weariness

By John Zehring

The global Covid-18 pandemic has everyone worn down, along with escalating climate change, divisive politics, racial inequities, economic uncertainty, and moments of weariness simply from daily life. When you feel worn down, this book leads you to springs of spiritual refreshment. “Worn Down?” is a compendium of John Zehring’s writings, drawn from the bible and from hymns, and gathered into bite-sized chapters to inspire, lift, comfort, strengthen, and encourage hope. The book reminds that when you are weary, God is the one who shares the yoke with you to help you pull your burden. When you are worn down, troubled, or discouraged, God is your refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Zehring
• Release date: Oct 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005135157

John Zehring

John Zehring has served United Church of Christ congregations as Senior Pastor in Massachusetts (Andover), Rhode Island (Kingston), and Maine (Augusta) and as an Interim Pastor in Massachusetts (Arlington, Harvard). Prior to parish ministry, he served in higher education, primarily in development and institutional advancement. He worked as a dean of students, director of career planning and placement, adjunct professor of public speaking and as a vice president at a seminary and at a college. He is the author of more than sixty books and is a regular writer for The Christian Citizen, an American Baptist social justice publication. He has taught Public Speaking, Creative Writing, Educational Psychology and Church Administration. John was the founding editor of the publication Seminary Development News, a publication for seminary presidents, vice presidents and trustees (published by the Association of Theological Schools, funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment). He graduated from Eastern University and holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Rider University, and the Earlham School of Religion. He is listed in Marquis' WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA and is a recipient of their Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. John and his wife Donna live in two places, in central Massachusetts and by the sea in Maine.

Book preview

Introduction

Meditations

About the Author

Books by John Zehring

Introduction

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Psalm 46:1

The global Covid-18 pandemic has everyone worn down.

Before the pandemic, it was natural to experience moments of weariness simply from daily life. With an uncertain future, times of feeling spiritually or emotionally drained increase in geometric proportion. You don’t need a litany of what causes a person to feel worn down. What you might find useful, however, is a resource like this to lead you to springs of spiritual refreshment.

Writing about the bible, spirituality, and theology has become a passion of mine. From my writing and serving as a pastor for decades, I see firsthand how people draw comfort, strength, fortitude, and spiritual refreshment from their faith. Of the Bible’s many inspiring verses, a vast number are addressed directly to those who feel worn down. And so, this work serves as a compendium of my writing, teaching, and worship leadership to guide you to gather in one place a multitude of inspiration and hope for times when you might be feeling a bit worn down. Much of this work is adapted from other books I have written, which can be found at major book retailers.

Scriptures used in this work come from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted. Hymns and their lyrics in this book come from the public domain.

I have attempted to use inclusive language wherever possible in the words I have written, although I have not altered the author’s reference to God as he. I recognize that the Divine has no gender and for many it may be just as appropriate and accurate to acknowledge God as Mother or Father. Whichever pronoun is used, consider God as a loving parent.

Like good food, it is possible to overindulge in too rich a mixture. I encourage you not to read this book through like you would read a novel, but rather to place it nearby your side to draw from in small bites, like a daily inspiration – especially for times when you feel a need for spiritual refreshment.

John Zehring

Meditations

God is your refuge and strength

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

Psalm 46:1-3

When my mother died, I received a sympathy card with only this verse on the cover: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. I cherished every card, prayer, and good wish, but this one towered above the others and I’ll never forget how much it meant to me at that moment. Psalm 46:1 is one of the most beautiful, comforting, and beloved verses in the book of Psalms. This is a mountain peak of the Psalmist’s writings. It reassures that God gives you strength beyond your own, God helps you, and God is your refuge when you need a safe harbor in which to shelter. Anytime you feel the need for help or for extra strength, this is your verse.

I was meeting with a senior-high church youth group when I had the opportunity to ask them what they believed about God. Their responses varied, but most replied that God helped people when they were in trouble. That is right on target with the theology of the Psalmist. But, I persisted, what do you believe about God for times when you are not in trouble? Like these teens, are we not most inclined to call upon God when we need help? But then, when trouble has passed, it feels like God is needed less. What if we came to God in prayer equally in the good times as well as the bad? In the worst of times, God is your refuge, strength, and very present help. In the best of times, God is still present and that is when we do well to offer God our praise and our thanks.

Consider the verses which follow: "Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult." Sometimes the earth does change, and the mountains shake, with disastrous consequences. There are earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, floods, droughts, and every manner of natural disaster. With the greatest of irony, these incidents are referred to by insurance companies as Acts of God. But God does not cause bad things to happen to the creation which God created and loves. In the same way, our loving God would not cause bad things to happen to you. God does not cause your life to feel like an earthquake to teach you a lesson, to test your strength, or to temp you. That is not God’s way. Be comforted, though, that when your personal ground shakes or you feel flooded and overwhelmed, God is with you in your time of need. For Thou art with me, assured the Psalmist in Psalm 23.

The earth is changing, sadly, for the worse because of climate change. Increased hurricanes, wildfires, tornados, floods, and droughts become what is known as the new normal. Worse, viruses like the coronavirus and who knows what’s to come have the power to shut down the planet. And yet, we will not fear, though the earth should change… because we as people of faith trust that God is with us. When you feel in the need of added inner strength or are feeling worn down, may this verse come to you: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

God shares your burden with you

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30

You will find strength renewed when you recognize that you do not need to pull your burdens alone. You have a partner in Jesus, a yokefellow, to share the load. Then the burden is light.

One of the main events at county fairs is the ox pulling contest where a couple oxen are teamed up to a yoke. A chain is linked from the ring of the yoke to the cement block load, which is named the burden, and the race is to determine how far and how fast the oxen can pull the burden. That is how they plowed the field or pulled the wagon, yoked together, but today the oxen pull the burden to demonstrate their strength and to please the crowd. The burden, usually cement blocks, is so heavy that the two oxen can barely pull it and certainly one could not pull it alone.

I knew a carpenter who had visited the holy lands. I suspected that it did not escape him that both he and Jesus shared the same trade. I asked him, What did carpenters make in Jesus' day? He replied that they made little furniture – perhaps a table, a trunk for storage or a door. They used little furniture in the way we do today. They did not make houses, for houses were not made of 2 by 6 studs with plywood sheathing. Mostly, he said, they made farm implements. And most of those, he added, were ox yokes.

It is probable that Jesus made ox yokes in the carpenter's shop in Nazareth during the silent years of his teens and twenties. When he invites you to Come... take my yoke upon you he is using an image that he has wrapped his hands around many times.

Perhaps Jesus the carpenter, taking over the shop from his father Joseph, would have enjoyed working with tools and with his hands. His tool chest would have included the ax, tin saws set into a frame of wood, a plane, hammer and nails, and chisels of bronze or iron. Also, a carpenter needs a good measuring line, marking tool, and a compass to mark a circle.

There is a beauty to wood… the grain, the smell, the feel, and the strength. Jesus might have appreciated how the seed grew to the tree which became a table, a plow, a door, a table or a yoke. From his personal experience as a carpenter, he would use each item to draw illustrations which later would become the metaphors for teaching about the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus made ox yokes, the ox was typically brought to the carpenter or sometimes the carpenter would go to the farm and measurements were taken so that the yoke was hand-crafted to fit the ox well so that it will not hurt the animal or rub against it painfully. After the carpenter roughed out the yoke, the ox was brought back to have the yoke tried on and carefully adjusted. The word to describe that tailor-made fit is "easy." My yokes fit easy, like a comfortable old shoe.

Consider the physics of an ox yoke. There are two holes, one for each animal. That is named the oxbow. The oxen pull together, in tandem, so that the load is shared. Neither could pull the burden alone, but together they can. Imagine if only one animal had to wear this contraption. It would be off-balanced. Uncentered.

An iron ring is fastened to the center of the oxbow. A rope or chain is hooked to that. The thing they pull – be it a plow, a wagon, or any kind of load – is named the burden. A heavy burden cannot be pulled by one ox alone. A heavy burden cannot be pulled comfortably if the yoke does not fit easy.

From his crafting of yokes, Jesus offered one of his most comforting and reassuring invitations: Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Even the sound of his words soothes the restless soul: COME... REST... GENTLE... EASY... LIGHT.

COME TO ME. Jesus invites you. He is the source of strength, renewal, and rest.

CARRYING HEAVY BURDENS. Carrying a burden is not necessarily a bad thing. A burden can be a responsibility we shoulder. Or it could be a problem, a worry, a challenge, or a difficulty. And it could be when we help another to lift a burden. A seminary visited Albert Schweitzer at his jungle hospital at Lambarene, on the banks of the Ogowe River. Schweitzer was eighty-five years old. The student tells about an event that struck deeply: It was about eleven in the morning. The equatorial sun was beating down mercilessly, and we were walking up a hill with Dr. Schweitzer. Suddenly he left us and strode across the slope of the hill to a place where an African woman was struggling upward with a huge armload of wood for the cook fires. I watched with both admiration and concern as the eighty-five-year-old man took on the entire load of wood and carried it on up the hill for the relieved woman. When we all reached the top of the hill, one of the members of our group asked Dr. Schweitzer why he did things like that, implying that in that heat and at his age he should not. Albert Schweitzer, looking right at all of us and pointing to the woman, said simply, ‘No one should ever have to carry a burden like that alone’. Jesus looks at you and says the same.

I WILL GIVE YOU REST. The word rest does not mean a brief coffee break. It does not mean not having to do any work, or idleness. We would not want that. Idleness is more boring and stressful than work. Rest here means to make fresh again, to RE-fresh. The rest he gives restores your inner nature, as in Psalm 23 He restores my soul. Rest means to make new, as in if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation... the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17). When you are without rest, things can feel like they are falling apart. Paul wrote to the Colossians (1:17) that in him all things hold together. The rest Jesus gives renews your strength for the journey. In the verse, Jesus did not place limits on how many times you can come to him. He did not say you could come to him only once or twice. Picture Jesus with open arms and upturned palms offering you this invitation whenever you are weary and are carrying heavy burdens.

TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU. Since the yoke is a metaphor, why not be a bit fanciful with the imagination? Imagine the oxbow with two holes in it. Put your head in one of the holes and look over to see Jesus in the other. You and he pull your burden together, in tandem. The load is shared between you. Alone, you could not pull the weight. You would be off-centered and unbalanced. The load would be too heavy. But yoked together, you and he can pull any burden you have.

FIND REST FOR YOUR SOUL. The body needs rest, and so does the soul. When your soul is rested and renewed, you can