Bringing Sabbath Back
After packing and moving and the stress and the last box being unpacked (or opened, assessed, and thrown out!) we are in our new place. But that doesn't mean we are all settled and done and now onto resting. The list keeps going, the holidays are coming, life keeps moving and with a new house...there's new things to be done.
And that old lie creeps in about resting, or exercise or anything that's for your own self-care and well-being: I'll get to it when I have the time.
Nope. We all know this. You have to make the time. You make time for what you really want to be doing. It's just how it goes. In working with college women - when that new cute boy comes on the scene in your life....you discover all kinds of time!
So I'm bringing Sabbath back. (I'm sure J.T. needs to rest too)
The Sabbath....God has been resting since the beginning of time. Literally. He made all kinds of cool stuff for 6 days and then put His feet up and rested.
He Ceased. Rested. Embraced. Feasted. And calls us to do the same.
I love this thought in "Keeping the Sabbath Wholly" by Marva Dawn that speaks to the way we value ourselves and others often based upon accomplishments:
"If we can give up our need to produce and to judge others similarly by their accomplishments, we can be freed to value those particular gifts that others bring into our world. Thus, our Sabbath ceasing from productivity can bring great healing into our own lives as well as into the lives of those around us. One of the Sabbath practices that supports this ceasing from productivity is the intentional choice to use time simply to be with people. The point is not necessarily to do anything - perhaps to play, perhaps to share a needed time of gentle affection, but above all to simply be together. We can help each other learn not to find a person's value in his or her accomplishments. Accordingly, one of the greatest gifts of the Christian community can be this nurturing of a better sense of ourselves, a sense not tied in with our usefulness or success."
I don't want to measure my value by boxes unpacked, garages organized, soon to be gifts bought, lists checked off. My value comes by the fact that I am loved by the Creator. Loved by the King! Every one of us!
And so we have set our Sundays aside to play. To eat with others. To be with friends and people and to wander around nature and chase little ones in grass and to put phones and technology and clocks aside. To take a day to recalibrate what is valuable. To have nothing scheduled that day. To stop. To cease from the striving that the rest of week asks of us.
So may you look at one day this week and call it Set Aside. Call it a Day of Rest. Of ceasing from accomplishing. From striving. From judging. From success. And let that rest rejuvenate your mind and ready you for the tasks at hand the rest of the week.
I think you'll be surprised by how you see people. How you see the sky and the clouds and your children. How you see what matters and what does not. How it resets your sights, your heart, your mind.