Sabbath Rest
I stand by my words on Sunday – the most radical act of faith that we can enter in to, is to do nothing, to rest. I stand by that partly because I recognize my own struggle in that.
While I wouldn’t in any way characterize myself as a workaholic, I do feel like I carry around a certain burden of responsibility at all times. As if virtually every waking moment, I’m being judged for whatever action I do or don’t do – on some kind of cosmic scale. I don’t even know if I’ve ever put that to words, until now, but it resonates.
And sure, it sounds biblical, it even has roots in one of my favorite books and passages going all the way back to my youth – “Fear God and keep his commandments… For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14) And yet… the image of the scale, weighing my actions (and my life) is more Egyptian mythology than biblical or Christian theology. The very idea of “scales” comes up more often in the scriptures in God’s challenge to Israel about their abuse of each other by using dishonest scales, instead of God using scales to judge.
Maybe I’m stuck using dishonest scales myself.
A right reading of the invitation (“command” if we’re being honest) to Sabbath Rest, is that it is a necessary part of the rhythm of our lives and to ignore it, to ignore practicing rest, will bring about pain and ruin in us personally, and communally.
As I sit here writing, I’m physically reminded of this. I’m suffering from a head cold. And the only real way to get through it – no matter how much medicine I take – is through rest. And when I don’t get enough rest… I put my worn down body and overtaxed immune system in a place where I’m more susceptible to germs and viruses like the common cold.
Sabbath rest is a gift of God. And if we don’t take that gift, we end up with consequences – not because God is mad at us or punishing us – but because that’s the basic structure of the world God created. Bucking that structure just puts us in a place where we can get hurt. Gravity is also part of God’s creation. It’s a gift that our feet are firmly planted on the ground, that we don’t randomly float throughout the air. But if we decide to step off a cliff… the natural consequences of that gift will be… unpleasant for us.
More times than I can count, I’ve pushed boundaries and limits, thinking that I was immune or somehow faster or stronger – only to come face to face with the fact that “stretching” those limits will eventually (sooner than I think) cause me to suffer. Whereas taking part in God’s gift of rest, proclaiming in a tangible way that the weight of the world, and everything that I think depends on me, is safe in God’s hands… it produces more fruit than if I try to make it happen myself.
I truly encourage you to take up the gift of rest that God offers – not a 20 min power nap – but a Sabbath rest, woven into the rhythm of your week. And if you need help with that, we’ve got a great guide for that.
Welcoming You to Grow in Jesus – as you rest in Him,
Pastor Don