Spiritual disciplines can be difficult to put into play in a busy life. The most difficult ones for me involve resting. Can anyone else relate?
Do you live in workout clothes because it's easier to sprint from one demand to the next in spandex? Does your weekly meal plan include a run through Del Taco because it is impossible to carve out 30 minutes to make dinner? (Can anyone actually make dinner in 30? If so - call me!) Are your next 5 weekends already booked?
Sabbath rest is hard. In his book "Unity of the Bible," Fuller discusses the odd chapter and divisions in the Bible. Genesis 1 ends after the 6th day of creation, as if the creation of man is the climax of the story. Certainly we would like to think of it that way. However, he argues, a better chapter division would be after Genesis 2:3:
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
We tend to live in day 6 - we are created, the rest of creation is put in our dominion. We are the caretakers, the name givers. We tend the garden. We do it all.
However, God's climatic plan for us is not putting us in charge of everything, but having us rule his creation in his rest.
Matthew 11:28-29
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Sometimes we forget about that eternal rest in store for us. Or think that it's just something waiting for us out there in the great beyond. I have a friend who is climbing a mountain right now. A MOUNTAIN (not to be confused with a molehill). His plan was not to just continue life as normal and then begin climbing a mountain. Instead he trained for months. He ran. He treadmilled. He tackled high elevation hikes so that he'd be accustomed to altitude. He prepared himself in order to be ready for his environment and enjoy it.
Likewise, God sets a practice day for us. A practice day for our eternity. He knows that we will be very busy on the new earth, but it will be filled with restful responsibilities. He has rest for us in the future, but invites us into very practical rest now as preparation. This physical rest also allows us pause to appreciate the spiritual rest we have in Christ.
Sabbath is akin to that t-shirt I got when I signed up for that marathon: "I'm training for the Big Sur Marathon". It's an announcement to your household, your community that there's something big in store for you and you intend to be ready for it.
I never actually ran that marathon, by the way. I trained for months, but as race day got closer, I realized I hadn't trained enough to be able to run it in the time allowed. Shame. That makes it just a t-shirt in my case.
Sabbath is like that. It comes every single week, but if we don't embrace it fully, if we don't practice rest, if we treat it like every other day - well, then, that's all it is. Another day.
Let's make every effort to enter rest. How? Stay tuned!
Hebrews 4:
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
No comments:
Post a Comment