I am in my final week of my final semester of my final year of my undergraduate education. To keep it short and sweet: life is hitting me hard. I could talk about all the things that are weighing me down in life right now, but I do not want to seem as if my purpose in sharing the following is for a pity party. Suffice it to say that what I am writing comes from an extremely weary and burdened heart and soul that always feels the pressure to "do more..."
I want to start with something that probably needs to be said to the young adult American population (and pretty much the entirety of the American population): we need rest. We do not require rest. We need rest. I say it this way because it is required, of course, but I want to emphasize the urgency by using the word need. Now that we, you and I, have that established...
In Genesis 1 we can read that God created and we are told that God created in six days. Then, in Genesis 2:1-3 we are told, "So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation" (NLT). My point here is not on the issue of the days or length of creation. My point is to focus on Sabbath. In both Exodus and Leviticus this Sabbath day was focused on as a day to rest and give glory to God for His work of creation. The Sabbath was set aside as a time of rest. You know something that we, myself included, tend to skip over at this point? Humans were created on day six and on that day God spoke to them, "'Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground'...Then God said, 'Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life'" (NLT). God gave humans a task to perform, a job to do...but then God told them to immediately observe the next day as rest. It is this crazy thing that God does...He tells humans, "I have something big planned for you and a great work that I want you to do with me. But first...you need to take some time and rest in me."
Humans, though, we tend to mess things up. Jesus tells us the same thing in Mark 2. Jesus and his disciples were walking through some fields of grain one Sabbath and needed to eat so they picked some as they were passing by, which really only makes sense if you really think about it. However, there was a very strict law among the Jews that picking grain was considered work and we are not allowed to work on the Sabbath. The Pharisees reminded Jesus and his disciples of this fact very audibly and publicly, to which Jesus in turn reminded them of something they had forgotten. In fact, Jesus brings this point home to the Pharisees by saying, "The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath!" (NLT). Typically, the argument is made here that Jesus was telling the Pharisees to ease up on their silly, nit-picky laws. I would like to make the case that the Pharisees here were truly trying to do the right thing and that Jesus' point was not that they need to chillax with all of the laws, but that he was reminding them about this passage in Genesis. Jesus was reminding them that God has given humans a great work to do alongside Him but that we must continually take the time to rest in Him.
I imagine that the Pharisees of this story, and that many many many of us now, are stuck. We know that we need to practice "sabbath" and to do so means that we mustn't do anything "work-related." I wonder, though...doesn't it seem like work to try and figure out a large chunk of time in which we try to avoid doing anything that might be work? If so, then isn't that really going against what we are trying to accomplish? Is that really practicing sabbath? Don't get me wrong! Being able to take large chunks of time and relax and simply rest in God is a wonderful and great thing! But sometimes I think we, like the Pharisees, tend to over-complicate things.
We were not made to meet the requirements of the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was truly created for us.
I think...I think that we may have gotten some things wrong. If our objective in practicing sabbath is because we are told that we need to practice sabbath, then I think that we have sorely missed out on something beautiful. Sabbath was given to humanity as a gift. Humans were created on day six and God tasked them with something great, but first He wanted them to rest in Him and with Him on day seven. Jesus' reminder to the Pharisees is a reminder to us: there is something great that God has tasked us with but before we can begin we must take the time to focus in on God and find rest and strength in Him. Once we are rested up, we can truly dig into our work.
Sabbath is a gift from God in which He asks us to intentionally take the time to rest in Him and center our purpose in alignment with His purpose.
Now, that being said, I must admit that I rarely am able to take an entire day to practice sabbath. My guess is that most people that might read this don't have the time or ability to either. Here is what I have to say about that: find ways to rest in God or to do things more restfully and intentionally with the purpose of aligning your purpose with God's purpose. For me, this looks like purposefully reading Scripture at a leisurely pace with no predetermined stopping point (and it drives me crazy sometimes). It looks like taking the time to rest deeply in those moments when I can stop and simply relax and focus on God's task that He has given me. It looks like going exploring or hiking or going to Taco Bell with some friends or something like that, but with the purpose of resting in who God is and doing so with the desire to further align my purpose and goals with His purpose and will.
I want to end with the words of Christ, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light" (NLT Matthew 11:28-30).
Believe me when I say that I am the kind of person that reads something like this blog post and the cynicism begins to just ooze out of my pores, "Yeah, right, dude/dudette. Significantly easier said/read than done." Please, let me encourage you. Allow me the sincere pleasure to tell you that in Christ there is rest for your soul. It is so much easier to read it than to believe it and to practice it. It is so incredibly and truthfully worth it, though. Do not listen to the things and the stuff that weighs you down and whispers (or yells) into your ear, "Do more. Do more. Do more." We need rest. God has something so great for us to participate in alongside Him and all He asks is that we first rest in Him and center our will and purpose in His will and purpose. Find ways to practice sabbath and to rest in God. Take up the yoke of Jesus the Christ. Find rest for your soul.
Allow me to conclude with a short prayer for myself and for you, the reader:
Father, thank you so much for your creation. Thank you for your blessing and the task for us to participate with you in your world. Help us to find ways to rest in you. Allow us the opportunities to center our will and purpose with yours. We love you, Lord, so much. Amen.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Grace and Peace,
Dylan
No comments:
Post a Comment