But I have found that I have a cycle, or pattern rather to my life and until recently I was not even aware of it. Perhaps some of you will identify with this. I am a doer, a fixer, in other words, I'm a man. Not the manliest man on the block, but a man nonetheless. (yeah I like to watch Glee, but save your stone because deep down you love something that's girly too. I'll bet you just thought of it didn't you? Just own it dude, stop this charade).
Anyways, I found that I'll get excited about something: a book, a hobby, a new technology, something at my church, whatever and I'll start pouring myself into that thing. Devoting hours to it, never coming up for air, until I'm utterly spent (and usually frustrated) with whatever it is and life in general. This is how I have lived the majority of my Christian life. Most of the time I eagerly and passionately pursue Jesus, my relationship with Him, and how to grow to be more like Him, until either I wear myself out with way too much "ministry stuff" or I screw it up with some sin and choose not to confess and repent from it (out of shame, guilt, pride, etc).
Anybody relating yet? I get so busy "blowing it up for God" that I miss God completely. By the way, there's a passage in Revelation where Jesus is addresses the church in Ephesus about this very thing. Real, scary stuff.
So needless to say, as God always does, He began to break my heart for His truth, that I was never resting in Him, never pursuing Him. I was so busy doing all of this stuff FOR Him that I was missing Him completely. Yikes. Talk about a shot to the chin. That will put you on your face in a hurry. So I began to pray, pleading with God to forgive me and to show me how to remain in Him, to delight in Him, and most importantly how to rest in Him. This brought me to the Ten Commandments.
A funny thing about God's word, (just as an aside) it's the LIVING word of God, and so it kind of has a tendency to reveal itself in fresh, real ways. Even the passages that you have read a billion times come as if you've never seen them before (i.e. the Ten Commandments in this instance). So I started studying this idea of rest from one of the earliest sources of it and noticed something incredibly interesting. On the list of the Ten, (I know they're all important, this is just an observation) remembering the Sabbath is number 4, behind "having no other Gods before", "not worshipping idols", and "not using the Lord's name in vain". Thought that was interesting, since it was something that I had never really placed any importance on before now. It's even before "do not murder", wow.
Up until a few weeks ago, I have always thought about "Sabbath" as one of two things. The first one is the literal ritual practiced in the Jewish tradition where they literally do nothing all day. They prepare all of their food the night before, etc. The second was, quite honestly, attending church. Growing up in the Bible Belt you hear "church lingo" thrown around all the time, so the term Sabbath was not uncommon to me. In fact I had only heard it as it related to the gathering on a Sunday morning, so naturally that's what I thought it meant. I thought Sabbath was a Sunday where you go to a gathering and Sunday school in the morning and then spend the rest of the day watching football, doing homework, mowing the lawn, etc.
When I read the verse from Exodus 20:8, I noticed something I never had before (the whole Living word thing again). It says "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do ALL your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God." The term Sabbath derives from the Hebrew term shabbat, which is literally translated, "to cease." So you could interpret that verse as "on that seventh day, cease all of your striving and rest on God." And when I say rest on God I think that means stopping everything (emails, phone-calls, trips to the office, all striving for your gain) and completely re-shifting your thoughts to God (i.e. His glory, His creation, His majesty, His power) and to what He has done (i.e. adopted you as a son or daughter when you were His enemy. That he made you who were an insignificant nothing into something beautiful, a part of His grand purpose, design and glory).
I'm learning to rest. I can't put it any more clearly than that. I'm learning that I literally need a day to totally unplug from everything. To not check my email (crazy talk), to not update my twitter (getting crazier), to turn off my TV (absolute insanity) and to just be. To take a day and just exist. To work out, read a book, cook a meal, (no not refrigerated, but actually buying ingredients and making dinner, it's crazy for a single guy I know, but I'm actually getting better). And how amazing is it, that God mandates such a day for us every single week where we can stop down and rest in His goodness and grace. Because honestly when you just take ten minutes to really wrap your head around who He is and what He has done, your soul is refreshed. Your mind is put at ease. Your joy is renewed. The crazy, seemingly unstoppable pace of life doesn't seem as pressing when it's held up against the might of the One who created all things.
Now think about taking an entire day. Think about taking those ten minutes and multiplying it by 144. That's the the gift that God has given us with shabbat. Because when we cease striving for the world and let our hearts rise to the Creator of the world, we're renewed, refocused and re-energized for our true purpose on this planet. To give generously, to love deeply, and to make known the transformational truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
For His fame alone, I pray this would resonate within the very fiber of your being. In love, I pray that you to take a day to realize that divine gift that he gives each week to cease striving for Him, in order to zealously know Him. In the redeeming, peace-giving name of Jesus I pray, amen.
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