Sacred Toil and Your Rest in Giving Rest to Others
Sacred Toil and Your Rest in Giving Rest to Others
We spoke in the previous issue about true rest and about types of rest. Today we speak about:
Sacred toil and your rest in giving rest to others.
The spiritual person does not flee from toil in search of rest, but rather greatly rejoices to toil for the sake of God.
He seeks first the rest of his conscience, his rest in the Lord. As for bodily rest, he places it at the end of his priorities. He prefers toil if there is spiritual gain in it, and he sees his rest in this toil that brings him to God and in which the Kingdom is built.
Here we distinguish a type of sacred toil, which has many examples in Scripture:
Among them is toil in preaching and teaching, and in service in general, and toil in spiritual struggle. Saint Paul the Apostle, when some thought him inferior to the rest of the apostles in the degree of apostleship, said in defense of his apostleship: “But I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). And he said: “Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often” (2 Corinthians 11:23). And he said also about his service: “In weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often…” (2 Corinthians 11:27). Thus the most important thing he boasted in was toil. And he said concerning the reward of toil:
“Each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor” (1 Corinthians 3:8).
He praised the priests “who labor in the word and doctrine,” and said of them: “Let them be counted worthy of double honor” (1 Timothy 5:17). And he said to the Thessalonians: “We urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love” (1 Thessalonians 5:12).
And in his Epistle to the Romans he mentioned the names of holy women who labored in service, saying: “Greet Mary, who labored much for us… Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, who have labored in the Lord. Greet the beloved Persis, who labored much in the Lord” (Romans 16:6, 12).
Every toil that a person endures for the sake of the Lord is a beloved toil that God cannot forget, as the Apostle said:
“For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name” (Hebrews 6:10).
It is good to say that you love God, but your love for Him appears in your toil for His sake. And God rewards you for love and for toil. Thus the Apostle said: “I have not run in vain or labored in vain” (Philippians 2:16). And he said to the Corinthians: “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
The person who toils rejoices in the fruits of his toil.
An example of this is the farmer who toils in plowing the land, sowing it, watering it, and cleansing it from pests, until the time of harvest comes. Then he rejoices and knows that his toil was not in vain, but that the Lord rewarded him with blessing according to all his toil.
Every toil that a person endures with a spiritual aim, in a spiritual manner, for the sake of God, is a toil accounted to him by God and recorded with Him. Thus the Lord said to the angel of the Church of Ephesus: “I know your works, your labor, and your patience” (Revelation 2:2).
It is comforting that God knows all your toil and writes it for you in the Book of Life, and He will surely reward you for it in the blessed eternity, and perhaps in this life as well. He supports you in your toil and strengthens you, or says to you as He said to Saint Bula the Anchorite in his struggle: “Enough toil, my beloved Bula.” And He continually says:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
He gives us rest by lifting burdens from us, or by comforting us with spiritual consolation in our toils, or by granting us His beautiful promises, or by giving us delight in toil so that we long for more toil, or by reminding us that all our work for His sake will follow us into the blessed eternity, as it is said in the beatitude of those who depart:
“…that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them” (Revelation 14:13).
Therefore, the spiritual person, when he toils for the sake of the Lord, feels a blessing in this toil. And every toil has a crown, so he never leans toward rest in this life, remembering the saying of inspiration in the Book of Proverbs: “In all labor there is profit” (Proverbs 14:23).
Just as the Holy Bible presented to us examples of those who toiled for the sake of the Lord, so also Church history presented examples of sacred toil.
Saint Athanasius the Apostolic, for example, how much he toiled for the sake of the faith, and how many persecutions he endured from the heretical Arians, and how many false accusations and resistances were issued against him, and councils that judged against him, complaints to the emperor, and sentences of exile, until it was said to him: “The world is against you, O Athanasius.” Yet he endured all this toil with patience and with joy, for the sake of protecting the faith, taking the blessing of this toil.
Likewise, and even more, was the toil endured by the martyrs:
From threats, trials, imprisonment, and terrifying forms of torture, and pains beyond description. Yet it was a blessed toil for the sake of the Lord, for which they received crowns and deserved eternal rest.
The spiritual person rejoices in toil and finds his rest in it:
That is, he finds his inner rest in this outer toil, or finds the rest of his soul in the toil of his body, or finds eternal rest in this temporary, passing toil. Thus he is ready to toil here in order to rest there.
Saint John the Baptist encountered hardships in rebuking Herod for taking his brother’s wife. He was imprisoned and beheaded, yet he gave rest to his conscience so as to rest in eternity, giving us all a strong example of courage in defending the truth.
We also do not forget the toil of those who were faithful in service and set before themselves the saying of the Lord:
“Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).
“Until death”—is there any toil greater than this? Yet it is an expression of a person’s love for God.
Look at David the Prophet saying: “Surely I will not go into the chamber of my house, or go up to the comfort of my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob” (Psalm 132:3–5). He does not allow himself bodily rest until he fulfills his duty and the rights of his responsibility in the service of the Lord. Then he rests in spirit and body and sleeps with inner peace.
The spiritual person does not flee from toil, for the one who flees from toil flees from God.
He flees from duty and responsibility, and flees from the prepared crowns, while the one who toils shows through toil the measure of his love for God and the measure of his concern for the Kingdom of God on earth and for serving God in the persons of His children.
Therefore, if you want to rest in your heart, work for the rest of others.
All those who gave rest to others felt inner happiness because of that, even in social life. There are many examples of this: the physician finds rest in his conscience and heart when he gives rest to the patient he treats and removes his pain. The cartoonist finds his rest in making those who see his drawings and read his humor rejoice. Thus every artist finds his rest when his art enters people’s hearts and gives them rest.
The person who seeks his personal rest may be selfish, but the spiritual person always thinks of the rest of others. There are souls that can be called comforting souls; all who mingle with them find rest. They are a constant source of comfort. We give examples of this:
Motherhood and fatherhood, for instance:
The mother toils greatly in raising her daughter and in preparing her for marriage, and she rejoices in her marriage because she has become settled in life. Although she is deprived of her companionship, she feels happiness for her happiness. She may even sell her jewelry and ornaments to prepare her daughter if necessary. Likewise the father in raising his children and caring for their education and future, feeling that his mission in life is to bring every means of comfort and happiness to his children. For this reason, our good God called Himself the Heavenly Father. What matters is that the father and mother give rest to their children on a sound basis.
Another example of giving rest to others is the shepherd and his work for his flock:
He does not work for his own comfort, but exerts all his effort for his sheep, bringing them to green pastures and to waters of rest, and protecting them from every assault and every danger. For all this, God appointed shepherds for His people to care for them, to shepherd the Church of God which He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28).
Indeed, the Lord Himself likened Himself to a shepherd and said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). And in the Old Testament, in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, the Lord said: “I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick” (Ezekiel 34:15–16). All of this is giving for the rest of His flock.
All this gives us an idea of rest in giving:
The spiritual person finds his happiness in giving and finds his rest in the happiness of the one to whom he gives.
The infant finds his rest in the one who nurses him, whether his mother or another, and the nurse finds her rest in his rest. If he smiles, she feels great happiness. How much work is done for childhood— all of it is rest in giving.
“Our hearts will remain restless until they find rest in You.”
The person far from God lives in toil, because true rest is found only in God. Therefore David the Prophet rightly said: “But it is good for me to draw near to God” (Psalm 73:28). And he said: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes” (Psalm 118:8–9). “I was pushed back and about to fall, but the Lord helped me. The right hand of the Lord has done valiantly” (Psalm 118:13, 16).
Just as a person rests in the life of faith, he also rests in the life of hope.
The one who loses hope falls into despair and approaches destruction or loss. But the spiritual person sees by hope that every problem has a solution, every closed door has a key or several keys, and every fall has a rising after it. Problems have a pyramidal shape: they rise until they reach their peak, then descend on the other side. Thus were the problems of Joseph the Righteous; they rose until they brought him to prison, then descended and brought him to the kingdom. Likewise was the trial of Job: it rose until he lost everything, then it ended and he received blessing double (Job 42:10).
The rest of the spiritual person is in a life of surrender and peace, and a life of faith and hope.
Trust that if you rest inwardly, you will rest outwardly as well. Always let your means to rest be spiritual means, for there is a person who may fall into a problem and find his rest in a lie that covers it, or in a deceitful scheme as David did when he fell, or a person who becomes weary and resorts to painkillers that do not solve his problem or only distract him from it.
Rest does not mean absolute cessation from work, but rather distance from exhaustion.
If you become weary from thinking about a certain matter and cannot stop your mind completely, then change the course of your thinking and replace one thought with another, and thus you finally find rest.
The subject of rest and toil surely has another meeting with us, if the grace of the Lord wills and we live.
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