Keeping the Sabbath Holy

"Remember to keep the Sabbath holy. Work and get everything done during six days each week, but the seventh day is a day of rest to honor the Lord your God. On that day no one may do any work: not you, your son or daughter, your male or female slaves, your animals, or the foreigners living in your cities. The reason is that in six days the Lord made everything—the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. On the seventh day he rested. So the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” – Exodus 20:8-11 (NCV)

What does it mean to keep the Sabbath holy? Do you keep the Sabbath holy? Is there a day you stop working? Why do you think God wanted us to rest one day a week? How does resting honor God?

We exist in stressful times. Many people judge their success based off how busy they are, how many meetings they attend, how many boards they are on, and so on. In all of our busyness we do not have time to rest, and the idea of resting seems to be wrong to us. When we rest we wonder what we should be doing and we think about what we have to be doing, “If I don’t get this stuff done it will never get done.” And because there never seems to be an end to it we stop resting in order to work.
I once spoke with a young man after his father died, and died too young to die in our day and time. I asked him how he was holding up, and he told me he was fine. “My dad worked all the time. Always told us kids that it was to give us the life he never had. I guess we had that life, but I am not sure I ever had a father.”

If God could take a day off to rest and knew that the universe was not going to fall apart without him for a day, I think we can be assured that we are not so important that things will fall apart if we take a day off. In fact if we don’t take a day off things do fall apart. Our lives, our relationships, our inner peace, our joy, everything that makes us real (because what we do is not who we are) falls apart when we don’t keep the Sabbath holy. Keeping it holy means that we get some rest, that we honor God by enjoying the creation of which we are a part, that we drink from the wellspring of life that is communion with our Savior, that we spend time with friends and family, that we stop worrying about work and doing things just long enough to remember that Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.” Since we are made in the image of a Creator who rests, I suppose it is in our DNA to rest. Resting is part of who we are, resting honors the One who made us because it acknowledges who we are, and it bring us closer to our Maker. Starting now let us grow closer to God and his creation by keeping the Sabbath holy. It will make life more worth living!

With hope and joy,
Garrett

A Creation to Enjoy

God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good… And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. – Genesis 1:31, 2:2 (NRSV)

What does it mean to you that everything God has made is “very good”? What do you think of all the work that God has done? Why do you think God rested from the work? Do you rest from your work, and if so why?

Last week my family and I went down to the Florida coast to celebrate my birthday with my very good friend and his family. Before we left I was a bit stressed out. There was so much to do, and I didn’t feel like I had enough time to do it. I was also concerned about driving 6 hours south to spend two nights and then drive 6 hours back. Would the trip be worth it? When would I have time to prepare a sermon? How would Langston (my 9 month old) handle being in a car for so long? What about that meeting I am going to miss… so many questions.
When we got down there I felt better, and then I felt great. I stopped thinking about everything I “had” to do, and started to relax. The second night we ate out at an open-air restaurant right on the beach. My wife and my friend were having a great conversation, and I found myself staring at the clouds over the ocean as the sun set behind us. The clouds were beautiful colors of oranges mixed with purples mixed with colors no human has yet named, and amazing shapes billowing for what seemed to be miles and miles into the sky. One group of clouds had lightning flashing in its midst far at sea, while below others I could tell that rain was falling into the ocean. It captured my attention with its majesty.
As I looked at the wonder all around me I noticed someone else who seemed to also be captured by it. I walked over to him and asked him what he saw when he looked at it all. He told me his wife is an artist and explained to me the lines that he saw in it, and how he wished she was there to paint it. Then he stopped talking for a moment and turned to me, “It’s beautiful, and I am just glad I am here to see it.” He was right, it was beautiful, and thanks be to God I took the rest I needed to enjoy it.

I am sure that God rested after it all just to take it in, to enjoy the very good universe that he created. Jesus was right when he said that the Sabbath was made for us humans. We experience things as worthless as stress and thereby fail to recognize that a very good creation surrounds us. It is time to take a break, to rest, to observe the Sabbath and just take in the creation that God could not help but sit back and enjoy. I know we will see beauty and miracle, and realize that we are blessed just to be here and witness it. God wants us to enjoy life, and there is so much to enjoy right here! Do you see it?

With hope and joy,
Garrett