Monday, November 14, 2005

I Know Why God Invented Sabbath

I grew up thinking that Sabbath was Saturday and it was something bizarre that the Jews observed. However, my father would never let me mow grass on Sundays. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm getting older, but I just can't go at the pace I used to.
This weekend our church hosted a youth rally. We kept 12 (count 'em, 12) boys at our house for two nights. Actually 11 one night and 12 the next. That's not including my own son. The youth rally was Friday and Saturday. I taught a couple of classes on Saturday, no biggie. My son's musical was Thursday, Friday, and Saturday--the same weekend. My wife and I worked the concessions all three nights. The weekend before I had a wedding. So on Friday night we had the rehearsal dinner. After the dinner, I went to a friend's house who was hosting a game night for the teenagers. My son had a friend of his stay at our house the entire weekend. Saturday evening was the wedding after which I ran over to the local Valentino's (pizza place in Nebraska) for a presentation for our teens by the Harding (University) guy. So basically, my wife and I have been going for three weeks straight.
When I worked at Harding, I would travel a lot--up early in the morning and return late at night. I remember being so tired that I sat in the shower rather than stand. It was so hard to get going. That's kind of where I am now.
In my younger years, I owned an MGB. These little cars had little engines. Consequently, when you drive those things at a high rate of speed for extended periods of time, the blocks would crack. They just weren't engineered to take that kind of stress for so long. God said, "Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy." Sabbath simply means rest. There's something holy about rest. In essence, God was saying, "You need your rest. The human body wasn't intended to go 60 m.p.h. for long periods of time." So he told us to guard our rest time. Protect it. Keep it holy. See, my definition of of holy was something pure. Kind of a monk with a robe kind of mentality. But holy simply means set apart for a special purpose.
So, remember the Sabbath. Rest up. Don't get burned out. Even Jesus would go to the mountains to pray and to rest and relax. That's why God invented the Sabbath. Don't ask us to do anything this weekend. I have blocked it off of my calendar. It's time to rest. ZZZZZZZZZ JW

1 comment:

Donna G said...

I will give a hearty AMEN! to the fact we NEED rest and yes, more than I used to.