Dr. Tan Tek Seng

DAILY REFLECTION

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

Matthew 11:28

When we are weary, broken, and at the end of ourselves, Jesus invites us to lay our burdens at His feet and receive a peace that the world cannot give.

Mary was working as a nurse in a hospital in New York City. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she found herself on the edge of physical and emotional collapse. For months, she worked 14-hour shifts, surrounded by sickness, death, and fear. Every day, she held the hands of dying patients whose families couldn’t be there. Every night, she cried alone in her car before driving home — utterly drained and haunted by the weight of human suffering.

One evening, as she sat in her car and turned on the radio, she heard a pastor reading from the Gospel of Matthew: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” At that moment, she whispered through tears, “Jesus, I can’t do this anymore. Please give me rest.”

In that prayer, she felt something shift — not her circumstances, but her heart. She later said, “The hospital was still chaotic, people were still dying, but I wasn’t carrying it alone anymore. I felt His presence beside me.”

From then on, she began each shift with a quiet prayer, finding renewed strength to care for others. Her colleagues noticed a peace about her that defied the storm around them.

Matthew 11:28 reminds us that Jesus is a compassionate Shepherd who understands our fatigue. His invitation still stands today: when life feels too heavy, when our hearts grow tired, we are welcome to come — not with perfection, but with our pain — and find in Him the true rest that no achievement, possession, or human comfort can ever provide.

“The restful mind is a creative mind." - John Muir