I am learning about Sabbath right now. It always amazes me when God takes me from a small, confined version of something I thought understood to a new perspective that opens my eyes to how big and awesome He is. In the past, I guess I thought that Sabbath was something reserved for the "ultra-spiritual" to do. A list of rules. Or an outrageous command.
But this is what I'm discovering:
Where work is merely striving and rest is just recovery, there is death. We may "do" a lot of things, but we are not being who we were made to be. True rest opens us up to remembrance (recalling God's goodness and authority), renewal (becoming a new creation in Christ), and restoration (what has been lost and broken, often due to our own choices, is graciously given back to us by God in a new way.)
If I work to earn approval and rest only in order to work more, I am seeking control. I believe that by my own two hands, I can achieve affirmation, acceptance, acclaim...in essence, "love." When I believe that delusion, I do not even take into consideration God's love for me - a kind of love that I never deserved and yet is always constant, always holding me.
Sabbath is more than a particular day. It's not about rules. It's not man-made. It's not just for the really religious.
It's the beginning...the launching pad from which we see God as a God of rest. A God who does not strive to do, but simply is. In Sabbath, we come to know His name: I AM. And when we get lost in His name, we become beings who rest in His arms. He calls us to stand still in this moment even while the current of time rushes around us. We have to turn a deaf ear to the voices which urge us to rush our way out of fear...and instead listen to the still, small voice of the One who holds our world in His hands. This can be the bravest thing you and I do right now.
The command to rest is a gift because it is an invitation to abide in Love.
It comes down to this: I need to rest, not so that I can get back to working harder and producing more, but in order to be changed on the inside and find out what Life is all about.
I've been listening to this song lately and I think it directly relates with receiving Sabbath as a gift:
I would like to show you
Something of my own two hands
I want to have earned it
I want to deserve this
Where is the sparrow in all the skies
That gained by merit its place in life
You are persistent and I wonder why
And how do I let you in
Being loved is a hard thing to take
It's a hard thing to take
Being loved is a hard thing to take
I will try, I will try
-Christa Wells
Post inspired by Shelly Miller. Find her at the Sabbath Society: http://shellymillerwriter.com/sabbath-society/ (She also wrote a book - Rhythms of Rest - which I just ordered and am very excited to read!)