This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “The Theology of Rest,” promises that believers who develop perfect confidence in God will become “the reliable ones in any crisis” and experience “perfect rest” and “oneness with him,” claiming that those who learn to “worship God and trust him” will go “to the breaking point without breaking our confidence in him” and become “a deep joy to him.”
Here’s what trusting that perfect confidence in God provides divine rest and crisis reliability actually delivered:
“Jesus expects perfect confidence from those who name His name,” Pastor Martinez declared with spiritual authority. “God’s children should be the reliable ones in any crisis. Learn to worship and trust Him, and you’ll reach perfect rest and oneness with God. You can go to the breaking point without breaking confidence in Him.”
Jennifer had been caring for her husband Mark through his battle with early-onset dementia, watching the man she’d loved for twenty years gradually disappear into confusion and aggression. The promise that developing perfect confidence in God would provide divine rest and make her reliable during this devastating crisis seemed like the spiritual strength she desperately needed to endure what felt like an impossible caregiving situation.
Jennifer desperately wanted to believe that worshiping God and trusting Him completely would result in the perfect rest and oneness that would sustain her through Mark’s decline. For months, she spent early morning hours practicing what she called “crisis confidence,” trying to develop unwavering trust in God that would enable going to the breaking point without breaking, waiting for the divine rest that perfect faith was supposed to produce. She avoided practical steps like respite care, dementia support groups, or caregiver counseling, believing that seeking human help would demonstrate insufficient confidence in God’s ability to provide rest and reliability during crisis.
Day after day, Jennifer sat beside her increasingly confused husband seeking the perfect rest and divine oneness that complete trust was supposed to activate, waiting for supernatural strength that would make her the reliable one God expected during this crisis. She tried to worship and trust through Mark’s violent outbursts, his inability to recognize her, his complete personality transformation, believing that perfect confidence would prevent her from reaching the breaking point and would produce the deep joy that oneness with God promises. When overwhelmed friends suggested adult day care, dementia specialists, or even antidepressants for her own mental health, she declined, trusting that divine rest through perfect confidence was more important than human caregiving support.
But the promised perfect rest through divine confidence was caregiver breakdown disguised as spiritual reliability.
Jennifer’s desperate attempts to develop perfect confidence in God produced no divine rest, no sense of oneness, no supernatural strength that would make her reliable during the dementia crisis. Despite months of trying to worship and trust without breaking confidence, no perfect rest emerged, no divine reliability materialized, no sense that she was bringing joy to God through her faithfulness developed. The silence grew more devastating each day as Mark’s condition worsened while she waited for the divine rest that perfect confidence was supposed to provide.
Meanwhile, Jennifer’s neighbor Carol approached her own husband’s dementia through immediate practical support systems. When Carol faced similar early-onset dementia in her spouse, she arranged respite care, joined dementia caregiver support groups, and worked with specialists to understand disease progression while protecting her own mental health through counseling and medication.
Carol’s approach came through dementia specialists, caregiver support, and mental health treatment. She maintained her well-being and provided better care through sustained practical work rather than waiting for divine rest through perfect confidence.
When Jennifer finally abandoned her search for perfect rest and sought caregiver support, she discovered that dementia care required understanding brain disease and building support networks. The months she’d spent trying to develop divine confidence had been months she needed professional guidance and community support for an impossible caregiving situation.
Where was the perfect rest that complete confidence in God was supposed to provide? Where was the divine oneness that should make her reliable during crisis without breaking?
The support that actually worked came from dementia specialists and caregiver counseling. The silence where divine rest was supposed to be revealed the truth: there was no perfect rest available through confidence in God, no divine oneness providing supernatural caregiving strength.
Only progressive brain disease that required professional understanding and comprehensive support systems, not spiritual confidence seeking divine rest from an absent God whose supposed reliability never emerged through perfect trust.
Reflection Question: When has seeking dementia specialists and caregiver support been more effective than trusting that perfect confidence in God provides divine rest and crisis reliability?
This story is part of my upcoming book “The Undevoted: Daily Departures from Divine Dependence,” which offers 365 human-centered alternatives to the spiritual certainties in Chambers’ devotional. Each day explores how reason, community, and human resilience can address life’s challenges without requiring divine intervention.
God or Delusion? 