The Concept of Comfort and Fatigue
The Concept of Comfort and Fatigue
In the previous issues, we spoke about his qualities in terms of depth and strength, and a heart with God. Today we speak about another quality, namely:
There are many kinds of comfort:
bodily comfort, psychological comfort, mental comfort, comfort of conscience, spiritual comfort… and relief from problems. There is true comfort, and there is false or erroneous comfort.
A person may find his comfort in a certain hobby, in a kind of sport for example, or in one of the arts such as drawing, music, or poetry, or he may find his comfort in reading, or in some form of amusement such as solving puzzles… There is nothing wrong in all this, as long as it is a sound means. Yet, despite that, it is not true comfort.
Some may find their comfort in enjoyment with friends, companions, and acquaintances, in the spirit of one family, in a social manner in which they converse and amuse themselves, or cooperate together in a public work. This is a sound type of comfort, as long as there is no fault in it. Yet it is a certain level of comfort, above which there is something higher.
There is false comfort and erroneous comfort:
King Ahab found rest when he managed to arrange an unjust conspiracy by which he seized the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, and his wife Jezebel helped him in that, wishing to fulfill his desire even through a series of sins… Yet neither of them rested, for God sent Elijah the prophet to Ahab to say to him: “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood also” (1 Kings 21:19). And the same happened to his wife as well (2 Kings 9:36).
A person may think that he gives himself comfort through smoking or drinking wine,
or by using some drugs… and he may reach the point of addiction in all this. He does not realize that cigarettes or wine do not solve a problem for him, but rather are another problem added to his problems. Drugs merely distract him from himself, so he forgets his problems for a while… but these problems remain without solution, and another more dangerous problem is added, namely drug abuse.
Another person may see his comfort in fulfilling a certain desire:
such as taking revenge on someone who insulted or wronged him, and responding to one word with two words, and then he feels relieved!! Likewise, if he manages to defeat his rival… but it is false and erroneous comfort…
Likewise, one may feel an inner comfort when he fulfills for himself a desire for greatness, or possession and ownership, or a bodily desire, or spending time in play and vanity, or practicing other wrong habits… and in all this he has destroyed himself.
Since this is the case, let us search for true comfort and how it comes about:
The first mention of rest in the Holy Bible is the verse that says: “And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:2–3). Here we find rest accompanied by blessing and sanctification, and it presents to us an important principle, namely:
Holy rest in the completion of good work.
For God looked at all His work, and “indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1:21). Therefore, He rested. In the same way, we find another rest in the completion of the work of redemption, when He said on the Cross: “It is finished” (John 19:30). And He also found His rest in His saying to the Father:
“I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4).
The spiritual person finds rest deep within, when he is able to complete every good work entrusted to him, and when he completes his service. As Saint Paul the Apostle said:
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day” (2 Timothy 4:6–8).
The Lord Christ rested when He completed the work of redemption, raised from Hades those who had fallen asleep in hope, and opened for them the gate of Paradise. Then He defeated death by His Resurrection at the dawn of Sunday.
For this reason, we sanctify Sunday and consider it the Lord’s Day, the day of true rest:
because in it the Lord gave rest to humanity from the penalty of sin and from death… and by His Resurrection He became “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). There we find rest on Sunday. Saturday was the day on which God rested as Creator, and Sunday is the day on which He rested as Redeemer and Savior.
Rest in it is not merely bodily rest, but also spiritual rest:
The spiritual person finds his rest on this day in the house of God, in the Divine Liturgy with its hymns and blessings, in listening to the holy readings and the sermon, and in partaking of the divine mysteries. He also finds his rest in the service he performs on this Lord’s Day. Through all this, his spirit rests, and he does not feel fatigue in the effort he expends… and he remembers what Saint John the Apostle said in the introduction to the Book of Revelation:
“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” (Revelation 1:10).
No doubt, while he was in the Spirit, he found heartfelt rest that made him forget the tribulation and exile on the island of Patmos, and prepared him for that wondrous divine vision which he saw…
Rest on the Lord’s Day does not mean laziness or idleness, nor does it mean that a person does absolutely no work, as the Pharisees understood from the Lord’s commandment (Deuteronomy 5:13–14). The commandment concerned refraining from worldly work, not spiritual work. Therefore, “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:12).
Our souls rest in God, and God rests in our souls:
As He said in the Psalm: “This is My resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it” (Psalm 132:14). God truly rests in the pure heart, rests in His saints, and is also glorified in them (2 Thessalonians 1:10). And just as God rests in the spiritual person, so also:
The spiritual person finds his rest in giving rest to others:
He feels pleasure and comfort whenever he gives rest to others. His heart rests and his spirit rests in every work of love he performs toward others. He finds heartfelt comfort when he rescues a poor person, or does good to a needy one, or has compassion on an orphan, or solves a problem for someone in distress, or consoles a sorrowful person… He also finds rest in the spiritual service he performs, regardless of how much effort it costs him…
Spiritual rest makes him not feel bodily fatigue:
A firefighter, for example, risks throwing himself into fire and smoke, and feels great comfort whenever he rescues a person from a blaze. Likewise is one who exerts effort to save someone from drowning, and likewise everyone who exerts all his effort to turn a sinner back from the way of error: “he will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20). All his toil in visitation, dialogue, persuasion, and endurance of that sinner—he does not feel it; rather, he finds pleasure in it if he is able to save him. Thus he feels great comfort.
No doubt, the greatest comfort that Christ felt was on the Cross:
Amid the excruciating pains of crucifixion, He felt an inexpressible comfort in delivering humanity from the sentence of death, in satisfying divine justice, and in offering Himself as a burnt offering and a sin offering for the redemption of all mankind… a comfort founded upon pain, which He endured because of love.
Perhaps the same comfort was felt by the martyrs, with the difference in measure:
Amid their torments and sufferings, they felt comfort as they were about to meet the Lord in Paradise, to be freed from the bonds of the body and matter, and to depart to the land of the living and the assembly of the saints.
Likewise the confessors, and everyone who endured sufferings for the sake of Christ. Thus it was said of the holy apostles, after they were beaten: “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41).
Likewise, the father and mother feel comfort in all their toil for raising their children.
No matter how much physical effort they expend in caring for these children, how much fatigue they endure in staying awake at night, caring for their health and cleanliness, attending to their education and providing for them—in all this they feel comfort. Just as the mother feels comfort while carrying her fetus in her womb, because God has granted her a child, regardless of the pains of pregnancy and childbirth.
Comfort is not merely bodily comfort, but also comfort of conscience:
The conscience rests when it fulfills its mission, when it performs its duty and completes it in the best way, and it does not at all care about the fatigue of the body for the sake of completing its work and achieving its good goal. The higher a person’s aspirations are, the more he toils and finds comfort in his toil… As the poet said:
“The greater the souls, the more the bodies toil for their aims…”
The opposite is one who rests bodily and tires his conscience:
Such as the person who is lazy and does not go to church or to service, under the pretext that his body needs rest. His body rests, but his conscience tires. Or the servant who is lazy in visiting those he serves, or who, under the excuse of bodily fatigue, neglects visiting a sick person or going to console a sorrowful one. He gives rest to his body while tiring his conscience.
Likewise, the student who does not study and indulges his body in amusement and rest—his psyche later becomes weary when he fails his exams, and his conscience tires because of his negligence in his duties… Similarly, every person who neglects his work and resorts to comfort, or does not gain the satisfaction of his superiors…
The fatigue of endurance also contains rest for the spirit:
The toil of the soul in turning the other cheek, in going the second mile, in being patient with one who quarrels with you and takes your tunic so you leave him the cloak also, and in not resisting evil (Matthew 5:39–41). All these forms of endurance—even if the soul toils in them, especially at the beginning—yet the conscience rests because it has carried out the commandment.
Likewise, the one who stays awake at night in prayer,
who rises at midnight to praise God for the judgments of His righteousness, whose eyes anticipate the night watches to meditate on all His words (Psalm 119:62, 148). Thus his spirit finds rest in all the fatigue of the body. He also finds rest in his struggle and wrestling against spiritual forces of evil (Ephesians 6), and in enduring to the end in order to be saved (Matthew 24:13).
With all this, God has not deprived us of bodily rest:
He granted us the Sabbath (now Sunday) so that we may rest in it bodily and spiritually. For God, who created our bodies, knows that the body needs rest one day each week. Therefore, the Lord said: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
It is your right, indeed your duty, to give rest to your body from exhaustion and illness, to give it its need of sleep, and not to cause it diseases through neglect of health principles. You also give it sufficient nourishment, but…
Do not make the rest of your body at the expense of the fatigue of your spirit:
You “nourish and cherish” your body (Ephesians 5:29), but at the same time you “discipline your body and bring it into subjection” (1 Corinthians 9:27), and do not allow it to rebel against the spirit. You give the body its nourishment, but not its lusts. You give it sleep for rest, but you awaken it for prayer so that the spirit also may rest.
Thus the spiritual person preserves the balance of rest between body and spirit:
Many people exhaust their bodies beyond their capacity, and their nerves are exhausted as well. They may err because of their strained nerves, and their spirits become weary. The matter needs wisdom and discernment.
In giving rest to your body, keep away from it psychological errors that weary it:
Anger and irritability are diseases of the soul and also weary the body. Likewise disturbance, anxiety, carrying worries, and excessive depression—all are afflictions of the soul that cause fatigue to the body as well. The Lord said regarding the treatment of this: “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things” (Matthew 6:34). Therefore, the spiritual person, whose heart is at rest and whose soul is in peace through a life of faith and surrender, by the rest of his spirit also gives rest to his body from many diseases…
The person whose soul is wearied by inner conflict also wearies his body:
The state of inner division he suffers, along with the pressing and conflicting thoughts that accompany it, wearies his body through mental tension. Likewise, one who is exhausted by excessive sorrow—his soul’s fatigue wearies his body as well. But the spiritual person, whose spirit, thoughts, and feelings move in one direction and who rests spiritually and psychologically, also gives rest to his body.
The spiritual person, just as he gives rest to himself and his body, even more so gives rest to his spirit:
He gives it rest from sins, from bad habits and corrupt traits. He gives it rest from lusts and from surrendering to temptations, and from the body’s resistance to it—the body that lusts against the spirit (Galatians 5:16–17). He gives it rest by victory over the wars of demons and resisting them steadfast in the faith (1 Peter 5:9). He also gives rest to his spirit by granting it spiritual nourishment that strengthens it, draws it near to God, and works His love within it.
He gives rest to his spirit by doing nothing that troubles his conscience…
His spirit rests in obedience to God, and God rests in his obedience:
God rests in hearts that believe in Him, love Him, and do His will and accomplish His purpose, like the angels, “who do His word, heeding the voice of His word” (Psalm 103:20).
The spiritual person’s spirit rests in the communion of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14). He does no work unless the Spirit of God participates with him in it. The spirit rests when it says to God in every work: “Your will be done.” Thus it gives rest and finds rest. How beautiful is what was said about Moses the prophet, that he made everything according to the pattern shown him by the Lord on the mountain (Hebrews 8:5).
We move to the final point: how a person finds rest:
If a person rests inwardly, he rests outwardly as well. If his inner being is weary, this weariness must appear outwardly. His view of matters is what tires him. Therefore, Saint Paul the Apostle said: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
A person must be convinced of doing good, so that his actions become good:
His heart must fully rest in walking by the Spirit, with no sinful desire wearying the will. As Saint John Chrysostom said: “No one can harm a person unless that person harms himself.” The person who is at rest inwardly is not wearied by any external cause, and he also does not weary others—unlike the non-spiritual person, whose nature is grumbling and whose psyche is not at rest; the slightest causes weary him, and he receives them with fatigue.
The fatigue is within him, not because of external causes:
For spiritual people were surrounded by many wearying external causes, yet they did not become weary. Finally, do you think that the subject of comfort and fatigue has ended?!
No, it has a continuation in the next issue, God willing, if the grace of the Lord wills and we live.
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