Imagine with me for a moment that you’re exhausted. You’ve been working long, hard hours, and nothing in life seems to be turning out the way you had planned. You are out-of-sorts, cranky; you yell at the kids when they’re noisy before dinner. You need a break, a chance to unwind. You need rest.
What do you do? Watch a show on TV or go to a movie? How about curling up in front of the fire with a novel, or doing a workout session at the spa? Maybe a round of one-on-one with your daughter at your basketball hoop will help. Or maybe a couple of pizzas, a two-liter bottle of pop and a carton of ice cream will take your mind off your troubles. Or you might try a ride up the canyon, a hike to the top of Mount Olympus, a long walk with your spouse, or a trip to the mall with your credit card. How about taking a nap?
Will any of these rejuvenate you or help you cope with the stresses of your life? Much of modern entertainment is a way to escape from our problems, rather than solve them. And even wholesome activities can be sinful if they are used obsessively to run away from life.
I looked up the definition of “recreation” in the dictionary and found: “restoration to health; to create anew, restore, refresh; refreshment of strength and spirits after work; a means of refreshment or diversion.” The definition of “recreate” is “to give new life or freshness to; to create again.”
Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Come Unto the Lord for Rest
What we really need is not diversion from life, but a fresh perspective of the world, ourselves and God. I would like to propose a form of recreation that will restore us to complete mental and emotional health, create a new heart in each one of us, refresh our strength and our spirits, and give us new life. The elixir for exhaustion and overwork is to repent – to turn our hearts and our wills to God and seek the rest that only He can provide.
Not long ago I was depressed, overburdened with work and home responsibilities, so discouraged by my life’s circumstances that I had mostly lost faith in prayer. I was still going through the outward motions of worship but not having any personal spiritual experiences. I prayed, but my prayers seemed to bounce unheard off the ceiling, and I hardly read my scriptures. I had separated myself from God.
One Sunday in November of 2002, I heard a lesson in Relief Society in which the teacher suggested we each keep a gratitude journal. The Spirit somehow penetrated my hard heart, whispering, “Listen to this, Peg.” I heard, and got myself a small notebook, determined that I would try.
At first, I could think of nothing at all that I was grateful for and struggled to write even one or two sentences. As the weeks went by, I continued writing every day, even if was something as simple as gratitude for electricity or for rain; then I was prompted to read the things I had written. I became increasingly aware that I really did have much to be grateful for, and I received something I thought was gone forever – hope. My depressed feelings gradually lifted. For me, this was the beginning of a process of repentance (of turning my heart to God) that is ongoing in my life.
In Matthew 11:28-30 we read: “Come unto me, all yet hat labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
When Jesus says to come unto Him, what does He mean? We need to look closer at a few of the words in these verses for understanding.
A yoke is “a wooden bar or frame by which two draft animals are joined at the heads or necks for working together.” An invitation to take the Savior’s yoke is an invitation to have him right beside us, lending His strength – not to take a heavy load by ourselves.
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.” Did you know that the word of is “used as a function word to indicate belonging or a possessive relationship”? Jesus wants us for His own! And then He says, “for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
Likening this scripture to myself, I read:
Come unto me, Peg (think of your own name). When you labor and are heavy laden, I, Jesus Christ, will give you rest. Let me work beside you, Peg, yoked together in all you do, lending my strength. Come, learn of me. Be mine. Come into a close, personal relationship with me, and I will tell you all things you need to know and do.
Don’t just learn about me in the scriptures. Come directly to me, for you are my daughter (or my son, if you are a man), and I am meek and lowly in heart. I want to spend time with you. I came to save you, Peg. I will succor you. I will run to you by the side of the road, where you lie, helpless in the weaknesses that trouble you, and you shall find rest unto your soul, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
I will carry the weight of your burdens. That is why I came to earth. That is the meaning of my atonement – that you and I are yoked together, in other words, we are “one.”
What is “All that We can Do?”
So, what is the work we are to do, yoked together with Jesus?
2 Nephi 25:23 “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”
I could easily misconstrue “all we can do” to justify my self-sufficient striving to “do what is right” and save myself. But when I read the whole verse in context, I recognize that “after all we can do” refers to “believe in Christ, and . be reconciled to God.”
Just three verses earlier, Nephi says, “Yea, behold I say unto you, that as these things are true, and as the Lord God liveth, there is none other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ, of which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved” (2 Nephi 25:20).
There is no other name, (certainly not my own name – my good works) whereby I can be saved.
Three verses later, Nephi says, “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Nephi 25:26).
In verse 27, Nephi very clearly says the law is dead, and life is in Christ. He says that the law was given to point us to Christ, not as a means to salvation. The “performances” of the law are part of “worship(ing) him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul” (verse 29), out of love for Him, not to earn any reward or prove any personal worthiness. Only Christ is “the right way.”
What is “all we can do,” then? It is to repent, and be reconciled to God. The only other time in the scriptures that “all we can do” is repeated is in Alma 24:11:
And now behold, my brethren, since it has been all that we could do, (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and to get God to take them away from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain(emphasis mine).
The phrase is repeated twice. And what is that “all we can do”? It is to repent.
The “How-Tos” of Repentance
How do we repent? The Bible Dictionary says: “The Greek word of which (repentance) is the translation denotes a change of mind, i.e., a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world. Since we are born into conditions of mortality, repentance comes to mean a turning of the heart and will to God, and a renunciation of sin to which we are naturally inclined.”
So, how do we turn our hearts and wills to God, and renounce our natural man tendencies to sin?
Alma 34:17 tells us how:
Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you.
We begin to exercise our faith by recognizing our relationship to Him – that we need to depend on Him for help, that we need mercy. Verse 18 says, “Yea, cry unto him for mercy; for he is mighty to save.”
I distinctly remember one day at the worst point of my depression, dropping to my knees by the side of my bed, crying to God, “Why don’t You love me, Father?” My needs didn’t seem to matter at all, not even to Him. I begged Him to hear me, as I sobbed.
Looking back, I believe that day was the turning point he Lord had been waiting for – my heartfelt, soul-deep begging for mercy. It was shortly after this desperate prayer that the Spirit caught my attention with the inspiration to count my blessings in a journal. The beginning of my faith that the Lord might save even me, began with my cry by the side of my bed.
We believe He is powerful enough to save us, and merciful enough to want to, and we cry out to Him begging for mercy. (This brings to my mind the questions, “Are we not all beggars?” in Mosiah 4:19.)
Alma 34:19 continues, “Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him.”
We admit that we are nothing without Him, and come unto Him, trusting Him to answer, and we pray for every need. Verses 20-23 say:
Cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks.
Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening.
Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies.
Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness.
We admit to Him that we are weak, and plead for deliverance from our enemies and from the many temptations that so easily divert us from following Christ, who is the path to righteousness and the keeper of the gate which we can only pass through by considering ourselves fools before God and coming down in the depths of humility, loving truth more than lies. (see 2 Nephi 9:40-43)
You know the proverb, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18) I know personally what that means. I have a particular mortal weakness to overeat, especially when I am stressed. After more than a year of keeping my gratitude journal, I had come a long way from that desperate prayer by the side of my bed. I had lost a lot of weight during this same time period, and I must admit that I succumbed to a personal pride in what I had accomplished, and to bragging about it. When my pride was pointed out to me by several family members, I was humiliated.
Attending the temple one night, I prayed, “Father, I’m willing to do whatever Thou would have me do. Please, let me know Thy will for me.”
Again, I begged for help, admitting my weakness and pride. His answer came over the next couple of days as I was led to an intensive study of the Book of Mormon through an LDS Twelve Step program of repentance.
Alma 34:26-27 tells us, “But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness. Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you”.
And then we come to God in prayer, continually, in our closets (in private), in our secret places (in our hearts), and in our wilderness (apart, alone, in our lost state of great need), and we humbly seek to know His will for us and seek His power to carry it out. These are the good (of God) works we are called to do – to “counsel with the Lord in all (our) doings, and he will direct (us) for good.” (verse 37), to “let all (our) thoughts be directed unto the Lord,” and to “let all the affections of (our) hearts be placed upon the Lord forever.” (verse 36)In doing these good works, we “shall find rest to (our) souls.” (verse 34)
What Kind of Rest Are We Promised?
If we repent, or turn to God in this way, what will we receive? What is that rest we are promised?
We will know we are doing the will of God, for we will have His words directly to us through the power of the Holy Ghost. There is no greater rest, no greater peace than this: to know that we are wrapped in His arms of safety because we know Him, and love Him, and have received His testimony in our own hearts that He loves us.
How have we received that? By truly repenting, coming to God with all our heart, mind, might and strength, we are fulfilling that part of the ordinance where we are given the Holy Ghost after baptism -actually receiving Him.
As I have come every morning in prayer and study, learning to perceive the Spirit’s voice to me, I have experienced in a deeply personal way God’s awareness of me.
I feel the inspiration of the Spirit come into my heart and mind, and I realize that the Lord is willing to teach me the truth about my weaknesses. I want to change my heart. I begin to see the lies I had believed about myself, about my place in the world, and about my worth to God. In repenting of my sins, I literally feel His arms of safety wrapped around me like a warm blanket.
Personal Revelation
What are we receiving when we feel personally inspired? We are receiving the words of Christ, given directly to us through the power of the Holy Ghost. As I have read 2 Nephi 32:2-5 carefully, I have realized that the constant companionship we are promised in the sacrament prayers is the constant companionship of Jesus Christ, whose words come to us through the power of the Holy Ghost. He is so meek and humble and loving that He is willing to walk through life with each person who is willing to come to Him. He not only atoned for our sins in Gethsemane and on Golgotha, but He saves us now, personally, walking with us in our lives.
Perhaps a personal example of personal revelation and repentance is appropriate to share. About a year after I began my Twelve Step recovery program, I was in a car accident on the freeway one Friday night. It happened so fast. Through the grace of God, nobody was hurt and damage to both cars was minor. The other driver was late to work and in a hurry, so we did not wait for a highway patrolman at that time, but exchanged phone numbers and insurance information, waiting until Monday morning to file our accident reports.
Over the weekend, I replayed the accident in my mind countless times, seeing the other driver at fault, though it wasn’t clear to me how it all could have happened.
The Lord prompted me to drive to the scene of the accident Monday morning before going to the Highway Patrol office. I drove through the accident route over and over again. On my third round, I saw in my mind’s eye what had happened and drove, shaking, to a safe place to park my car. I cried, for I now knew the accident was my fault.
The Lord gave me a sense of peace and comfort as I filled out the accident report, and I was aware of His joy that I had allowed Him to save me from bearing false witness that day.
“Come Ye Yourselves Apart”
Jesus not only was born in Bethlehem, but is willing to be born in us, giving us a new birth in Him, a new heart (His heart.) During the time when Jesus walked on the earth in mortality, the way He rejuvenated Himself was to go out into the wilderness and commune with God, His Father. His forty days and forty nights in the wilderness in the deserts near the Dead Sea was such a time.
Many times, He would escape the press of the crowds and find a private place to pray. The reason He was apart from His disciples and had to walk on water to reach their ship in the middle of the Sea of Galilee was that He had been refreshing His mind and spirit, alone, having gone up into a mountain to pray. In Mark 6:31 He said to His disciples, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.” He led them apart from the world to rest.
Prayer, repenting, coming to Christ, and developing a personal relationship with Him, receiving revelation from Him is the best way to rejuvenate ourselves. This gospel kind of recreation is what will truly restore our souls to sanity, or spiritual health.
Being Led to Recreation that Refreshes and Restores Us
In relationship with Him, born into life with Him, He will lead us to all things we should do. And some of those things will be fun. Some of those things will even be playful, but they will be given by the Lord. Play is defined in the dictionary as: “recreational activity, especially the spontaneous activity of children,” and spontaneous is “proceeding from one’s free will, voluntarily; proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint; controlled and directed internally.”
In humbling ourselves, we are coming to the Lord as a little child. All our activities will be given voluntarily to Him, through our free will, proceeding from the thoughts that come from our sensitivity to His Spirit. We will be internally directed from a changed heart, and we will find true, lasting peace, contentment, rest and even joy in the things we do.
Some of the recreational activities I have been led to recently, since I have been awakened to His presence, are: reading and pondering the scriptures in a way that satisfies me so much that I never tire of coming to feast with Him, taking long walks to enjoy the beauties of the world He has created for me, and playing music on my flute, rejoicing in the song of redeeming love I hear back from Him as I play.
Whatever He leads us to do for recreation will satisfy us as no worldly activity can. Inspired activities come from the living water – the revelation we receive – and that water is “a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).
Going back to the definition of recreation, we will receive a: “restoration to health; (will be) created anew, restored, refreshed . with (His) strength . and given new life” – even everlasting life.
