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May 4 - May 23, 2019
Routines are often rigid and concrete, correct or incorrect.
Rhythms, on the other hand, are nuanced and unique to each individual. Rhythms describe the art of living a life embodied with meaning and intention in the same way God creates. The way you move out, adapt to, and integrate with the world around you is like a free-flowing dance of choices. Pay attention to your surroundings, adapt while remaining open to adjustments, and integrate with the world around you. Rhythms shift while remaining focused on what is most important.
Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sins changes the rules of Sabbath to a day of grace. He is waiting for us to be with him and to trust that his commandments are good, no matter what day or how much time we choose to give him. Jesus is Sabbath. When we make the day different on his behalf, holiness inhabits our intentions.
But the more we fill our lives with yeses, even noble and good ones, who we are slowly drifts into obscurity until all that remains is a shadow of our former self, void of purpose and definition.
A lack of faith in Sabbath reeks of self-sufficiency. And the fear of scarcity robs us of the miracle.
With years of practice, I’ve learned that vacation is a change in mindset cultivated by the inspiration of new geography. The choice of rest is a kindness to your inner self that is desperate for conversation about calling.
Quiet conversations and contemplation during times of rest bring the core of what matters most in life bubbling back up to the surface.
Mark Batterson writes, “If faith is being sure of what we hope for, then being unsure of what we hope for is the antithesis of faith, isn’t it? Well-developed faith results in well-defined prayers, and well-defined prayers result in a well-lived life.”4
Sabbath is a personal epistle from Jesus with news about your life.
Chronic busyness results in soul amnesia, the thief stealing life-giving moments of neshamah yeteirah, the extra soul that dwells with us on Sabbath.
Listen to your life, and then respond to what you are hearing. Collect the epistles God is sending like a scribe poised with an open notebook, jotting down sacred echoes.
Sharing those mental notes with others requires some risk and bravery, but God’s reputation and the outcomes are his business.
When I like to know outcomes and insist on putting the personality of Jesus within the parameters of my experience, I remember that the way of faith isn’t a formula to follow but an intimate relationship of meaningful conversation. There is a reason why he permits sharing your heart sometimes and quiet pondering at others, why he says, “Wisdom is proved right by her deeds” (Matthew 11:19), not justified by the approval of others.
Our soul remembers what the mind easily forgets. What we pour into our soul today may seem inconsequential, yet it will provide a stabilizing anchor for the future.
God gave us Sabbath as a commandment, not so we could achieve his love, but to show us how deeply he already loves us.
In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield writes, “The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.”1
Choosing to leave work undone for rest isn’t a sign of weakness and failure. On the contrary, choosing rest over work is the ultimate act of brave trust in God’s sovereign hand upon creation. He is in charge of our minutes.
Ministry springing forth from a place of peace fuels a heightened awareness of God’s presence with us. A renewal of sensitivity to the Holy Spirit informs leadership decisions with great results. Without Sabbath, it is easier to fall into people-pleasing and making decisions based on selfish motives, not only in volunteerism and ministry vocation but also in core relationships.
Sabbath is a weekly reminder that God cares more about who you are than what you do.
We’re not taking a day off work for the reward of greater productivity, but a day to remember why we work.
Deciding what I most need out of life, carefully calculating my next move, and generally allowing my autonomous self to run amuck inflates my sense of self-importance and reduces the God of my incredible journey to the role of spectator on the sidelines. It is only the wisdom and perspective gleaned from an hour of silent prayer each morning that prevents me from running for CEO of the universe.10
Henri Nouwen instructs, “Instead of running away from our loneliness and trying to forget or deny it, we have to protect it and turn it into a fruitful solitude. To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit, from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to
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When we see time as a generous gift of invitation instead of something we hoard selfishly, we are more generous with the hours given us and free from the tyranny of the urgent.
God’s precepts express his love and faithfulness as much as the works of his hands. His love has been the motivation for our waiting season all along. I just couldn’t detect his presence through the anxiety and uncertainty. “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the
heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19:8 ESV).
Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. Exodus 34:10 ESV We want to know that our waiting is not in vain, and he promises it won’t be. The result of our waiting will be an awesome thing he will do for us when we trust him. I wait for the fulfillment of things to come to pass, when Jesus longs for me to wait for him to come.
Relinquishment of outcomes precedes the miracle he wants to do in and through us. “He remembers his covenant forever” (Psalm 105:8).
