Field guide · Weather
Us with Godand Restlessness
Forecast: gusty and unsettled, with frequent checks of the phone and the job listings.
Four tired ways to walk
Each has some truth in it. None of them is the whole story.
Under GodSheep that hide from the Shepherd
Maybe I’m restless because I’m out of God’s will and he’s trying to warn me.
Over GodSheep that know the way
I just need the right goal and a five-year plan to feel settled.
From GodSheep that follow the grass
God, I need something new: a new job, a new house, a new feeling.
For GodSheep trying to be the sheepdog
If I’m not doing something big for God, I’m wasting my life.
Rest is found in him, and not in the next thing.
“Truly my soul finds rest in God” (Ps 62:1). Restlessness, boredom, and the itch for more often point to a hunger no new thing can fill. The psalmist pictures a weaned child resting with its mother, calm and quiet, no longer grabbing (Ps 131:2). There is a Sabbath rest for God’s people, and we enter it by trusting him to finish the work (Heb 4:9–10). The next thing might still come. It just won’t have to save us.
Where the Shepherd isHe is the Shepherd who makes us lie down in green pastures, right where we already are (Ps 23:2).
When the itch comes today, sit still for two minutes and pray Ps 131 before you reach for the next thing.
Lord, what am I hoping the next thing will give me that you already are?
Fellow travelers
People in Scripture who walked this ground before us.
- Solomon chased every pleasure and project under the sun and called it chasing the wind (Eccl 2:1–11).
- Paul said he had learned to be content in plenty and in want, through Christ (Phil 4:11–13).
Keep walking
- With God: Sheep that know his voicethe posture every entry points to
- Which Way Are You Walking?a short self-check
- The Field Guideevery entry, by terrain, weather and crossing