I have a bit of a weird hobby. Sometimes when I am at church or a sporting event or some other situation where a group of people are gathered, I look around and I think about all the stuff that is going on in each of our lives that nobody else knows about.

I wonder who is having a great week in which every single part of their lives seems to be going their way.

I wonder who finds themselves on the losing end of more battles than they even know they were fighting.

I wonder who is full of life, and who is dying, and I wonder if anybody out there is both of those things at the same time.

i wonder who wants desperately just to talk with somebody, but there is nobody there to listen.

And I wonder who is desperately trying to hide something and is terrified that somebody might find out.

its a weird hobby, I'll happily admit that, but over the years as I have gotten to actually know people and not just wonder about them, I've learned something that I think is really important;

we may all gather up in the same place from time to time, but we always come there from RADICALLY different places in our lives and in our hearts.

We are people, with joys and sorrows and announcements, and secrets. We are young and old and happy and sad and wise and foolish and living and dying, and Even when we’re all in the same room, we have so many different things going on in our lives that it can be really hard for us to actually talk to each other.

And in this moment, we are NOT in the same room together. You and I and lots of people are sharing this slice of our day together, and yet we are vastly separated both by the geography of the world around us, and also by the geography of our own hearts and minds inside of us.

So here is what I know today. No matter where you find yourself in this moment, and no matter where you find yourself in your life,

God-- cares. He just cares.

One day a long time ago, Jesus was talking to a big crowd of people who were every bit as complicated as we are, and he was explaining to them that He had come into the world so that people could know God and be set free in their lives. And then He said these words that we find in the book of Matthew chapter eleven. He said

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

I think that one of the oddities of life is that we can spend so much time together, and yet never really know one another. But God knows us, and He wants us. And if you are worn out today, man does He have a gift for you.