The Table
Dear Church Family,
This past Sunday we continued our series At the Table: What Technology Can’t Replace, and this week we named one of the biggest things technology promised but never delivered: rest.
In 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that technology would make us so productive that within a hundred years, his grandchildren’s generation would only need to work about fifteen hours a week. He thought our biggest problem would be figuring out what to do with all the free time. His deadline is 2030. We have four years, and most of us are going to need an extension. Technology promised to untether us, but it made a new tether, and it’s tighter. The average American now checks their phone 186 times a day. When technology was a place you went to, you could leave it. Now it goes everywhere with us, and that means we’re never really off. Technology hasn’t just taken our time. For many of us, it’s taken our peace.
Here’s the truth underneath it: we were never created to run nonstop. Rest was God’s idea from the very beginning. Humans were made on the sixth day, which means the first full day they ever lived was a day of rest with God. We were created to work from rest, not for rest. Later, God reminded His people that they were no longer slaves in Egypt, and free people get to stop. Jesus said it this way:
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
— Mark 2:27
Jesus didn’t just teach about rest; He practiced it. He withdrew to quiet places, took His disciples away to rest when they were too busy to eat, and even slept through a storm. That’s what rest really is: an act of trust. When we stop, when we sleep, when we Sabbath, we’re making an intentional choice to say, “I trust God.” Rest isn’t laziness. It’s faith.
That’s why the table is such a beautiful picture of rest. At the table, you stop working. You’re fed, you’re with people, and you’re free. When Elijah was exhausted and ready to quit, God didn’t lecture him. He gave him sleep and a meal, and then did it again. When Martha was distracted and worried about many things, Jesus pointed her to Mary, who was simply sitting with Him. The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, means whole: nothing missing, nothing broken. That kind of peace is found in God’s presence, and Jesus still invites us to it:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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
Jesus doesn’t remove every tether. He trades yours for His, and His gives rest instead of taking it. So here’s the question we left with: What do you need to stop doing, or start doing, to find rest? You will find peace and rest in His presence, at His table.
-Pastor Aaron Perry