Settling In #1

First, thank you so much for joining me here as I utilize substack as though it were an email list.

As of this writing, I've received mixes of 7 of the 9 songs for my new album, Settle In. I'm very excited to share this music with you and the rest of the wide world. Many of the cool promotional tools out there are unfortunately unavailable to small artists like myself and so, my only hope in sharing this music with anyone outside of my sphere is you. I hope that when the time comes the some will connect with you in a way that makes you believe they might connect with someone else.

This isn't meant to be a promotional message though. I want to tell you a little bit about what led me to this record and hopefully hear from you as well.

I wasn't setting out to write Settle In. About 18 months ago, I began studying Scripture around the idea of Sabbath. This commanded practice was one that I felt under educated in and so I went to the book looking for answers. What is the Sabbath and how should I go about observing it?

My search for answers of application though was quickly derailed as I find myself struck straight away by an observation that ended up shaping the whole study and ultimately forming the songs for Settle In.

After 6 days of creation, God examines his created order and assesses it to be very good. On the 7th day, God finished the work and rested. Many have said that God rested not because he needed rest, but so that we might know we need it. I don't love that read, and for me it undermines the jaw dropping reality off the passage: God finished the work and in blessing the day of the completion of his work, God reveals himself as trustworthy and capable to carry a work to fulfillment.

A few verses later, we have an account of humanity being placed in the garden. But placed is a word that doesn't really cut it. God settles humanity into the garden with intention. The Hebrew word is Nuach which means to rest or settle in. Humanity is at peace, at rest, cohabitating and co-laboring with God in the place they were designed for, in the life that they were designed for. Living, working, and resting in confidence in the God who carried out to totality his work of creation.

The search for application was now a distant memory in my mind, the urgency of knowing what to do displaced by total and complete awe. God's initiation of rest and invitation into it is an invitation to trust him to do what he sets out to do. It is an invitation to a life of cohabitation and co-laboring. It is salvific and prophetic. The promise and hope of salvation is found in God's initial rest. God intends to restore his people to the rest of living and working with Him, the rest he initially settled us into. And we know He is able; we know He finishes what he starts.

Jesus does not rest on the cross before acknowledging that it is finished. After finishing the work of redemption, God rested just like he did after his work of creation. And in doing so, He settles us right back in to that place of intimacy and co-laboring with him.

May you find yourself settled in with God today. And may you feel perfectly at home in the place you were made to be.