Maybe I didn’t ever realize it until now. Maybe I’ve spent a lifetime with tension between my shoulders and thought it normal. But this week, away from my sweet family and French surroundings, I started noticing the tension.

I wonder how long I’ve lived with this monster called stress who likes to camp between my head and back. I wonder how comfortable–if that makes any sense–I’ve become with the tension there.

I’m so tired. And my shoulders ache. I need the rest Jesus provides–rest from trials that seem to mount upon themselves, rest from expectations I place on myself, rest from worry about book sales and deadlines, rest from the deep underlying tension I have from living in a foreign country, rest from trying to be the perfect Mary so God will take notice of me, rest from fearing I’m not mothering correctly, rest from incessant worry that I’m not the wife I could be, rest from wondering what my friends think of me.

There is so much to rest from, it’s overwhelming! How about you? Are your shoulders like mine? Do you need rest? Resonate alongside me as I type these beautiful words:

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me because 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.

Yokes go on shoulders. What a paradox that my stress-mongering shoulders could take on yet another yoke and feel rest.

Perhaps I’ve been wearing the wrong yoke for years upon years.