Courage encourages courage.

Courage encourages courage.

Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest.

Here lies the basic flaw of all doubt. It can never really be satisfied. No evidence is ever fully, finally enough. Doubt wants always to consume, never to consummate. It clamors endlessly for an answer and so drowns out any answer that might be given it.

Once we begin to flee the things that threaten and burden us, there is no end to fleeing. God's solution is surprising. He offers rest. But it's a unique form of rest. It's to rest in him in the midst of our threats and our burdens. It's discovering, as David did in seasons of distress, that God is our rock and refuge right in the thick of our situation.

Sabbath's golden rule: Cease from what is necessary. Embrace that which gives life.

Many of us are confessional giants but ethical midgets.