Anyways- Happy sabbath:) Couldn't be a better one! This weather makes me (and I think everyone else!) a better person. It may be the season of lent, but the new life emerging around me in colors and sounds, smells and beauty has me feeling like today is Resurrection Sunday! I love Spring!!!
I wish I could sit and write something new, but my sister is in town and I'd rather spend some time with her! And because it is the sabbath today, I remembered something I wrote for a retreat this past fall. Still convicts me when I read it. Hope you enjoy it and that it leads you to a closeness with the Holy Spirit this day...
Silence. Rest. Sabbath.
Television. Facebook. Internet. Phone calls. Text messages. Email. Video Games. Magazines. Movies. School. Homework. Practice. Games. Family. Friends. Church. Babysitting. Work. Events. Chores. Sleep.
Our everyday is crowded, and at times can be overwhelming. Technology has now given us an extra dimension to the chaos of it all. We have the ability to be plugged in and connected to the world (or just our little world) within five seconds and in about sixty different ways. So now, if we’re not plugged in and communicating with the world at all times, it seems like such a waste of time. Our generation doesn’t look at social networking as a function but as how we define ourselves. As Christians, we should see a problem in that. We have been swept up into this culture without realizing that it goes against the Christian culture. By constantly being in tune with everyone and everything around us, we push God aside. We are putting God, the Creator of the Universe, in competition with television.
So we say we’re stressed out, stretched thin and split, and our hope is supposed to be that one day it will all be over and peaceful in heaven? I have to wait til I die? No. Our hope as followers of Christ is not that it will all be better one day, but that today is that day. Salvation isn’t a ticket to heaven. Jesus came to save us now: body, mind, soul, heart. (Luke 10:25-28) And that is why we have a Sabbath.
After we do work six days (jobs, events, school, responsibilities, etc) we are created to take a day off. We’re human. Not machines. Not gods. We come from the dust. We physically and spiritually need that literal Sabbath day. But that literal day doesn’t mean take a nap and vegetate. Sabbath is a state of mind everyday when we realize that we are not what everything is all about. Nothing is on our shoulders. But it’s also realizing that we are on a first name basis with the Creator, the Love, the Truth. And it gives us the time to work on our deepest feelings and thoughts, our problems. Sabbath is stopping and resting and being in silence.
Right now, I am sitting outside in the glory of God’s creation. The tops of the trees are glowing. The wind is moving the neighbors’ chimes. The water is sparkling as it trickles over the spillway. I can hear the rustling of every leaf as it moves in unison with the others. The birds are chirping lightly and soar by every few moments. It’s silent. I have a million things to do, but somehow, listening to the sounds of it all, I am at rest. Every breeze that blows by feels like a breath from God seeping into the deepest part of my soul. I can’t help but notice sounds and colors and smells without thinking how profoundly sad it must be for someone who is missing this. But then again, how many times have I missed this? And probably because I was running from one thing to the next, texting, talking, listening to music, all while grabbing a cup of coffee so I could do it even faster. We are created to work, but not to overwork, not to overschedule, overplan, or overcommunicate. Don’t let yourself be caught up in the world’s chaos when you have the Savior of the World even closer to you than your phone or computer. He is it. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is Love. Let Him be that to you. Let your soul find rest, find silence, find Sabbath.
No comments:
Post a Comment