Rest

I don’t know about you but this had been one of those summers where it has been non-stop. I think I was gone for a total of 5 weeks and man does it feel like there is still so much more to do. Then to cap it all off, a cousin of Melissa’s died about 2 weeks ago. He was hit by something that was sticking out the side of a train in the head. Not a really good way to close out the summer if you ask me. Anyways, I keep asking myself when is this ever going to slow down; will I ever get a break (You know, the poor me attitude)? But seriously, whoever thought life would be this hard. I know I didn’t. Its funny, when we were younger we spent so much time trying to act older then we were saying to ourselves, “I cant wait to be this age”. When I am 21, I am going to do this and when I’m 25 I am going to do this and hope to accomplish this. The crazy part is once we hit those ages, we always look back saying what it would be like to be that age again. It’s like after we hit the age of 25, life become so repetitious. We wake up, feed the dog, kiss the wife goodbye, consume ourselves with the work we have the majority of the day, come home, have dinner, take the dog for a walk, watch a little TV, then go to bed only to do the same thing over again tomorrow. I feel like I consume myself so much with work that even when I’m off, I am thinking about what it is I still have to do. I have a feeling that I am not the only one fighting this battle though. I have been reading through this book called The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel. Once again I feel God is tapping me on the shoulder saying, you have tried it your way for 26 years now, how about giving my way a try. For me, I look at the word Sabbath and honestly feel like; yeah it is just another day. Or so I thought. We look back at the creation story and even then man was created to work. Labor was a good thing. We were commanded to tend to the earth as well as to be fruitful. It wasn’t until the fall that toil was added to that labor. What was once a good thing now has become a struggle. Even in the midst of the fall, God still gave us this day, a day to rest and to celebrate what he has blessed us with. It is a day that was given to us, not a day that we have decided to take for ourselves. “For the Sabbath is joy, holiness, and rest; joy is part of this world; holiness and rest are something of the world to come”. In reality, the Sabbath is not just another day, it is a day set apart from the rest of the week. It is a day of praise, not a day of struggle. It is a day meant to be spent mending our brokenness, not adding to it with more struggle. Am I saying that we need to take a day to do absolutely nothing but meditate and be still? No (only if that is what you feel that you need to do)! What I am saying is that this day was given to us for the purpose of something greater then what we use if for now. It was given to us to rest, rejoice, and most importantly to focus on all that the Lord has blessed you with. How are you spending your Sabbath?