About Sabbath (Sabbath, Part 1)

[Disclaimer: While I cling pretty hard to the idea that there is “nothing new under the sun”, my inner English teacher is ever nervous about committing plagiarism. The ideas I present here are nothing new, and not my own, but principles I have learned from minds more brilliant than mine. I am still learning, I do not pretend to have it all together nor to know all there is to know. My hope is that you will read this for what it is - an amalgamation of things I’ve learned, and that you will understand my deep gratitude to those who have walked this path before me and now turn back to teach and lead others.]

Today I was honored to share about a theme God has been teaching me over several challenging years: sabbath. It hasn’t been easy to learn, and I feel that the learning curve has been ever so steep!

I shared my thoughts on sabbath at the first Creekside Women’s Retreat, and before it was time for me to speak, I noticed that every song we sang, every person who shared their own testimony throughout the morning all said something that lined up exactly with what was on my heart to share. I love when God does that. I sat in the front row, raring to go because I was so excited, and at the same time, compressing the feelings because I thought I might cry. God is just that amazing.

But God also has a sense of humor that I think we forget to give Him credit for. And just as He was in my learning, my writing, and my teaching, He was in my preparation. And so, God - yes, I’m pointing my finger at Him - made off with the last page of my notes. That is, of course, the only page that had specific, numbered bullet points, which I was then required to recall from memory (and of which I didn’t do such a good job).

But my prayer from the very beginning was that God could cut through my lack of eloquence and instead bring forth truth that would be useful to others. So I confessed to the ladies, as I was halfway through page 5, that page 6 was suddenly noticed missing. They were a very gracious bunch, and I promptly decided that God could still speak if He chose to do so, with or without my notes.

So, all that to say that I knew my material would make for a decent set of blog posts, and I promised the ladies that I would post the missing parts later... I’m going to attempt to post the written version of what I said, for those of you that weren’t present, so this is basically the full-meal-deal (if you could call it that!) So, let’s roll, shall we?

I’ve been the Kids Pastor at Creekside for 4 1/2 years. I love what I do - there’s incredible value in pointing kids to a God that loves them more than I ever could, and leading the team of adults and young adults that help them know this God.

This position has existed in many different seasons, and while I won’t go into history now, I’ve reflected and noticed that one theme in my life remains: I’m busy.

Are you busy, too? I know you are, because you’ve told me. Before the retreat started this morning, I had 8 conversations with people who all said - in various forms - that they’re busy. You tell me you’re busy, both in words and actions, and I believe you because more than ever before, we are simply a busy society.

Everyone is busy. Culture says that busyness is equal to meaning. If you’re not busy, you’re not accomplishing, achieving, and certainly not succeeding. Whereas one used to be defined by a social role - mother, father, daughter, son, husband, wife - we are now defined by what we achieve, or worse, what our kids achieve. (And that is another topic for another day!)

We are so busy that even our days off are filled with chores and to-do items. Maybe you rolled your eyes when I said “days off” because you haven’t had one of those since your oldest was born 8 years ago?

But is all this busyness really the best way? Is this God’s intention for our lives?

More tomorrow...