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Come to Me

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

—Matthew 11:28

Labor Day weekend is often treated simply as the unofficial end of summer. It gives many people a three-day weekend, one last opportunity to travel, gather with friends, cook outdoors, or rest before autumn begins in earnest. Yet the holiday has a deeper purpose. Labor Day was established to honor the contributions of workers and grew out of the labor movement’s struggle for fair wages, reasonable hours, safer workplaces, and humane treatment.

These concerns are not separate from our faith. The Bible repeatedly affirms the dignity of labor, commands justice for workers, and reminds us that no human being should be valued only for what he or she can produce.

Work itself is not a punishment. Before humanity’s fall, God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden “to dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15). Human beings were created to cultivate, create, care for, and contribute to the world around us. Honest work can give us purpose, allow us to serve others, and make use of the gifts God has given us. As Colossians 3:23 tells us, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.”

But the Bible does not praise work without limits. Scripture also condemns those who exploit workers or deny them the fruits of their labor. Deuteronomy 24:14 commands, “Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy,” while the following verse instructs employers to pay workers promptly because they depend upon their wages. James offers an even harsher warning: “Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth” (James 5:4).

God hears the cries of those who are overworked, underpaid, mistreated, or regarded as disposable. A person’s labor may be bought, but that person’s dignity never can be. The worker behind a counter, the person cleaning an office after everyone else has gone home, the farmworker harvesting our food, the nurse finishing an exhausting shift, and the teacher carrying work home at night are all created in the image of God. Their worth does not depend upon their job title, salary, education, or social standing.

Jesus Himself knew what it meant to labor. Before beginning His ministry, He worked as a carpenter. His disciples included fishermen who understood long hours, physical exhaustion, and the uncertainty of whether their work would provide enough. When Jesus spoke to ordinary people, He did not speak from the comfort of a palace. He lived among those who worked with their hands, struggled to provide for their families, and knew what it meant to be weary.

That makes His invitation in Matthew especially powerful: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

The burdens Jesus described were not limited to physical labor. He was speaking to people weighed down by sin, sorrow, fear, religious demands, and the struggles of life. Nevertheless, His words speak to every kind of weariness. Some burdens come from our employment, while others come from caring for family, worrying about money, living with illness, hiding part of ourselves, or trying to meet expectations that no human being could ever satisfy. Some people carry burdens invisible to everyone around them.

Christ does not tell the weary to work harder so that they might finally deserve His care. He simply says, “Come unto me.”

Our culture often treats exhaustion as evidence of virtue. We admire people who are constantly busy and sometimes feel guilty when we are not accomplishing something. Even rest can become another task to perform correctly. Yet God never intended us to labor without ceasing. After six days of creation, God rested. The Sabbath was given not because God needed humanity to become more productive, but because human beings need restoration. Jesus said, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

Rest is not laziness. It is an acknowledgment that we are human and have limits. We need sleep, quiet, recreation, companionship, prayer, and time in which our value is not measured by our productivity. Rest reminds us that the world continues to turn even when we stop working because ultimately the world rests in God’s hands, not ours.

This Labor Day, we should be grateful for the work others do and mindful of those whose labor is too often overlooked. We should support fairness, safety, dignity, and adequate compensation for every worker. We should also remember that God does not love us because of what we accomplish. Our jobs may describe part of what we do, but they do not define who we are.

Jesus continues His invitation by saying, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.” A yoke ordinarily represents work, but Christ promises that we do not have to bear it alone. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29–30).

God does not promise us a life without labor or responsibility. He promises His presence within it. He calls us to work honestly, treat workers justly, help carry one another’s burdens, and recognize when it is time to rest.

Whether this weekend finds us working, relaxing, caring for others, or simply trying to make it through another difficult day, Christ’s invitation remains the same:

Come to Me.

Bring Me your work, your worries, your exhaustion, and every burden you were never meant to carry alone.

And I will give you rest.

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Moment of Zen: Football 🏈

Football season is finally here, and these guys are ready to leave it all on the field—quite literally. Now, this is what I call a winning formation.

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TGIF!

TGIF! Four o’clock this afternoon cannot come fast enough.

I have a few things to work on today, but thankfully, nothing is a major priority. It should be a pretty low-key day—just a matter of getting through the next several hours until the long weekend officially begins.

After work, I have a grocery order to pick up, and then I can come home and settle in for a three-day weekend with Isabella. She and I need some quality time together, and I desperately need some time to relax. Isabella probably doesn’t need any additional rest, considering she already sleeps about eighteen hours a day, but I’m sure she’ll be happy to supervise mine—and let me know when she thinks I’ve slept long enough.

Of course, college football starts this weekend, so my major Saturday activity will be watching my favorite teams play their first games of the season. Other than that, I’m looking forward to some quiet time, perhaps with a good book, a little cooking, or both. Nothing too exciting—just a peaceful weekend at home with my favorite little black cat. Honestly, that sounds pretty wonderful to me.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, whether you’re in the United States enjoying the three-day Labor Day weekend or spending an ordinary weekend somewhere else. Whatever your plans may be, I hope you find some time to relax and enjoy yourself.

🐘 ROLL TIDE! 🐘 

🏈

🐅 WAR EAGLE! 🐅 

🏈

🦅 TO THE TOP! 🦅

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Just a Thursday

It’s Thursday, and honestly, I don’t have much to say this morning. It’s been a pretty low-key week, even with classes starting back and the campus coming to life again. Nothing particularly exciting has happened, which I suppose isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

I am definitely ready for the upcoming three-day weekend, though I have absolutely nothing exciting planned. For that matter, I’m not even sure I’ll manage anything moderately entertaining. I’ll probably spend most of it at home with Isabella, reading, relaxing, and enjoying not having to go anywhere. There are certainly worse ways to spend a long weekend.

For now, though, I just have to get through Thursday and Friday. My coffee is helping with Thursday. We’ll worry about Friday when it gets here.

Have a great Thursday, everyone. The long weekend is almost here!

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Back on Campus

It’s Wednesday. Hump Day. The week is almost half over, and so far, this week has been pretty boring. Not that I’m complaining too much. Sometimes boring is better than the alternative.

The students are back, though, and that means one thing that makes the beginning of the fall semester a little more enjoyable: eye candy.

I still appreciate the fact that the new gym is now on the edge of campus closest to the museum. That means there is a fairly steady stream of guys passing by on their way to and from working out. Earlier this week, however, I saw something that I have probably only seen four or five times since I moved to Vermont nearly eleven years ago: shirtless guys on campus.

That probably sounds strange to anyone who has spent much time around a university in the South. On a warm, sunny day, shirtless college guys are practically part of the scenery. Walk across almost any Southern university quad and you’re likely to see guys tossing a Frisbee, playing an impromptu shirts-and-skins game of football, lounging around in the sun, or going for a run without a shirt. When I lived in the South, I never thought twice about it because it was such a common sight.

It happens at universities up here, too, although certainly not with the same frequency. There’s a decent chance that if you drive by the University of Vermont campus in Burlington on a warm afternoon, you’ll spot a couple of frat guys jogging along without shirts. On my campus, however, a shirtless guy is practically an anomaly.

I’m not even sure cadets are allowed to run around campus shirtless. There are rules governing so many aspects of their appearance that it wouldn’t surprise me if there were one about that as well. You would think the civilian students would make up for it, but apparently they didn’t get the memo.

So, when it does happen, it’s still a welcome sight.

Of course, on a campus like mine, where physical fitness is basically a requirement for the majority of the student body, the guys have plenty of other ways to show off what all those hours in the gym have accomplished. Tight T-shirts do a pretty good job of displaying shoulders, chests, and arms, while thin athletic shorts and sweatpants have been known to highlight certain other assets. I may be getting older, but I’m certainly not blind.

Summer would seem like the obvious season for more shirtless scenery, but unfortunately, we don’t have a large summer student population. Only a handful of programs hold classes during the summer, so there simply aren’t that many students around when Vermont finally gets warm enough for shirts to become optional.

And this is Vermont, after all. During the regular academic year—from late August through May—the window for genuinely warm weather is rather small. We might get a few weeks at the beginning of the fall semester and another few toward the end of spring before everyone disappears for summer. Before long, those athletic shorts will give way to sweatpants, then jackets, then heavy coats as winter settles in for what always seems like six months.

So, I suppose I should appreciate these warm September days while they last.

Besides, there’s still plenty of eye candy around campus, with or without shirts