In response to my post yesterday, Neil suggested that what I was describing was Sabbath time. Here is Mark Buchanan’s (author of The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath) definition of the golden rule of Sabbath keeping:
Cease from what is necessary. Embrace that which gives life.
Lots of good questions there: what is it that we consider necessary? What does God consider necessary? What do we know, in our heart and soul, gives us life? If we know what gives us life, how do we go about embracing it? How do we find those Sabbath moments in the midst of the “tyranny of the urgent?” How do we make time for Sabbath days and Sabbath weekends and perhaps the occasional Sabbath weeks? What happens to our souls if we don’t make the time? What messages are we teaching our kids about rest and the restoration of our souls when we overschedule and overcommit them as well as ourselves? When our after-school hours, weekends, summers and vacations are packed full of activities, do we teach them that their value is found in what they can accomplish rather than in being a child of God? Hmmm…food for thought! See this blogger’s thoughts about how our suburban life is killing us…very funny!
And yes, I agree with Neil, what I described yesterday was indeed Sabbath time. Can anybody say Glory?!?
