Weathered wooden signpost, with weathered blue arrow pointing right

12 signposts on the journey to rest

I’ve learned a lot about rest from people in Scripture. Seeing their lives with fresh eyes, I’ve seen things I had not realized: How blessed rest is. How different it looks from what we often think. How much in our lives can keep us from it. Here are 12 “signposts” pointing us to rest, signposts placed on the path by people who came before.

My beautiful, long-haired, brown-and-black cat Tessa sleeps on a pillow on the carpet in a shaft of sunlight.

Tessa and the lion’s den

  • Post category:My Story
  • Post last modified:March 12, 2025

My finicky and beloved cat Tessa lived for 17 years. She inspired this post one night in 2004 – the year I first found myself in a den with lions that tear people apart.

Red, pink and white rose petals, along with tiny yellow leaves, lie scattered on gray paving stones

To the exiles scattered by toxic church

Maybe the church has become bewildering to you. Leaders you trusted and people you respected are acting in ways that do not reflect who Jesus is, nor what they profess to believe. They have turned on anyone among them who appears to threaten the status quo. What is going on?

A bald eagle soars toward the sun's dazzling light.
I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

The purpose of the wilderness

Wilderness strips life bare. It knocks all the supports out from under us. Circumstances may scream at us - and we may scream at God - that he has brought us there to kill us. And yet, it's in the wilderness that we may hear him say, “I have carried you on eagles’ wings to bring you to myself.”

Set free: Closeup of woman silhouetted by the hazy sun behind her. Her upraised arms are chained, but the chains have just broken.

The truth will set you free

Since childhood, I’ve treasured Jesus’ words, “the truth will set you free.” Now I see this diamond in its setting. I hear the urgency in his cry to us all.

With the sun behind her, low in the sky, a woman mountain climber rests for a moment, hanging from the lines that attach her to the cliff.

Mary Magdalene stuck her neck out

Thank you, Mary Magdalene, for coming to Jesus. Your story shows: REST is humbly serving the One who always treats me with high respect, entrusts me with significant responsibility and involves me in things of first importance.

Seen through raindrops on glass, a hazy view of a weak sun in a sky full of gray clouds. Also hazy: the black silhouette of dark, hilly, overgrown terrain with what appears to be a church steeple rising behind it.

Witchcraft in the church

In the church, those obsessed with manipulating, intimidating and dominating can pose as those serving God. And we can be very fooled for a very long time.