Isaiah 61:3 (NLT) tells us, “To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.” That’s the promise. That’s what God offers. But if we’re being honest, sometimes we sit in the ashes longer than we have to—not because God hasn’t offered restoration, but because something in us keeps avoiding the place where that exchange actually happens.

A good friend and I were talking the other day, and she told me how tired she’s been—deep tired. Not just physically, but in her soul. Life’s been piling on, and she’s been carrying it solo, thinking she could manage.

She’s 58, never married, and what used to be a quiet ache has grown into something much more present. She tried to fill it in ways that made sense. She bought a beautiful luxury car, thinking maybe a little enjoyment would ease the weight, but it didn’t touch what she was really feeling. Then she picked up a second job, telling herself it was about getting ahead. But in her own words, it helped her avoid sitting still long enough to face the loneliness that kept rising up.

And that’s when it hit me—how easy it is to dress up avoidance so it looks responsible.  We say we’re just busy. Just handling life. Just a little more tired than usual. But sometimes the truth is deeper than that. Sometimes the busyness is covering something we don’t want to face, and the exhaustion isn’t just physical—it’s spiritual. It’s the weight of carrying something in the soul that was never meant to be carried alone.

When that gets mixed with a quiet resistance to letting God meet us right there, our soul’s cry out—but we stay too distracted to really hear it.

Jesus speaks straight into that place in Matthew 11:28–30 (NLT): 8 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Notice—He’s not just talking about physical rest. He’s going after the soul. That inner place where disappointment sits, where loneliness lingers, where unspoken fears  begin to pile up over time.

I remember seasons in my own life when I thought all I needed was rest. I would go to bed early, wake up, and still feel just as drained as the day before. It didn’t matter how much sleep I got—something deeper was off. And I had to come to terms with the fact that I was trying to meet a spiritual need with natural solutions. My soul needed what only the Lord can provide. It needed truth. It needed His presence in a real and honest way, not just routine or surface-level moments.

Sometimes, as believers, we’ve been taught to push past how we feel and just focus on being grateful. And while gratitude is absolutely necessary, it was never meant to replace honesty. Jesus never dismissed the weight people carried—He acknowledged it and then invited them to bring it to Him. That invitation still stands. Not when we’ve cleaned everything up, not when we’ve figured it all out, but right in the middle of the weariness, right in the middle of the tension between what we hoped life would be and what it actually looks like.

Matthew 6:30(NLT) reminds us, “And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?” When you really sit with that, it shifts something. Because if God is paying that much attention to something as temporary as wildflowers, how much more is He mindful of you? Not just your needs on the surface, but the deeper places—the inner ache, the weariness, the things you don’t always say out loud. The issue isn’t whether God cares. The question is whether we’re actually bringing those places to Him, or if we’ve learned how to manage life in a way that keeps Him at a distance.

And that’s where the truth meets us. We use all kinds of excuses to avoid facing what’s really going on within us. We stay busy, we take on more, we call it responsibility—but over time, we’ve allowed other things to take priority over our relationship with God. And that quiet shift doesn’t stay quiet forever. It shows up as an emptiness in the soul, a kind of unrest that nothing external can fix, no matter how full our schedules or our lives may look.

God never intended for us to carry life like that. He never asked us to figure it all out on our own, or to push through emotional and spiritual weight without bringing it to Him. What He offers is different. It’s not just relief—it’s restoration. It’s not just a break—it’s a realignment of the soul back into the place where it can breathe again.

And the truth is, that kind of rest only comes when we stop avoiding and start coming. Not perfectly. Not with everything figured out. But honestly. Openly. Willing to let God meet us in the places we’ve been trying to manage on our own. ■

For more on how avoidance affects soul, please CLICK HERE

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“The Excuse Instead of the Truth”, written by Kim Times for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2026.  All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.