But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.

Matthew 15:5-6 NLT

So I had been on summer vacation for the last few weeks, and it was busy. I went back home to the US, traveled to see family, had family over, helped with Church events, and still had to do things for work. It was a packed summer. So God told me to rest from my blog. My blog I really tried to post as bi-weekly as possible, or at least every few weeks. To go a whole month without doing it….that felt wrong.

But then God told me something:

“When did becoming a blogger and your habits of being a blogger trump my Word? I give rest to my beloved and being a blogger doesn’t make you a Christian.”

That hit me hard. I was being a Pharisee. I let my traditions trump what God told me. I acted as if being a blogger put me in God. But the whole point of being in God is going to God. Listening to Him, talking to Him, experiencing things with Him, just being in Him. That’s what makes me a Christian (a person like Jesus), having a relationship with Him.

It’s common to focus on the role of our relationship over just being with the person in the relationship. It’s like seeing a couple on a date, and one of them is constantly on the phone or bringing it up to make sure everything is on schedule or the perfect moments are captured, following a checklist and looking like the perfect romantic partner instead of being present on the date. That person isn’t paying attention to the other person who is right there. When we watch movies or scenes like that we always tell the “dumb” partner to put the phone down, stop following the checklist, and just look up.

But why don’t we?

We have to look up from our traditions, expectations, and roles we are putting above God and His word. We are invalidating God’s Word by saying that being the perfect (blogger, teacher, daughter, sister, mother, wife, husband, brother, son, worker, etc.) is more important than Him. How ignored and hurt must God feel when we tell Him that? We tell Him that we can’t change or do what He wants because it feels wrong to us. We tell Him that what He said must be wrong because it doesn’t fit our right.

At least I told God that.

I hurt God’s feelings by trying to reject the gift of rest He was giving me to be a blogger. I was that dumb romantic partner. So I apologized, admitted I was wrong, and accepted God’s gift. And He gladly gave it. With everything that happened in the Summer, those moments I was resting, not worrying about my blog or trying to be a blogger, God gave me peace. I was restored. 

Now with a lot of work changes coming up, I’m more prepared and ready to face them in God. He has helped me to learn to not only rest in Him but trust in Him, not my traditions or roles. Those will change, they have to if I want to grow. But God, God is God and will always be God.

God wants us to grow. We can forsake tradition and roles to anchor ourselves in Him. He won’t let us down.