The Sabbath Revisited

Today's a day for me.  Life has kept me surprisingly busy over the past week or so, and I haven't had a moment to rest.  After last week when I felt so burdened with my never-ending and constantly growing to-do list, I pulled out the handy dandy Book along with a couple books that I had read for my Sleep, Surrender and Sabbath class last semester.  I sometimes have to keep reminding myself that rest is not a luxury, but rather a necessity - not to mention another way to die to myself.

Yesterday Brent talked about idols.  I know I have idols in my life.  The one that comes to mind and has consumed me most recently is my auctioneering.  I feel like every second I'm not doing something else, I'm trying to figure out how to move ahead in my business.  I struggle with seeing this as an idol, seeing as I need to keep it on my mind quite frequently in order to be successful.  As I spent the day praying about how I can keep this as a priority without placing it in front of the Lord, I felt the Him saying, "Just rest in me.  The world will still keep on turning even if you're not doing anything to move it along."

We are required to work; that's what we get for sinning.  And although we cannot experience God's presence the way we were intended to in the Garden of Eden, we were still given the Sabbath to have a time where our mind, body and spirit can come to Jesus.  Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote in his book The Sabbath:

"The Sabbath is the most precious present mankind has received from the treasure house of God.  All week we think: The spirit is too far away, and we succumb to spiritual absenteeism, or at best we pray: Send us a little of Thy spirit.  On the Sabbath the spirit stands and pleads: Accept all excellence from me..."

I could go on forever about the Sabbath.  I think it may be my favorite Biblical topic.  The idea of having a designated time of rest to come fully into the presence of God - assuming we can die to ourselves to make the time for it - is so freeing.