Living Story Grace

The lesson for Sunday School this past week was on Sabbath. We began the time with a two-minute silence. For many, it was a long two minutes. As I’ve written here before, I struggle to rest, and studying Sabbath is enlightening me about why. Listen to this from Dan Allender’s book, Sabbath:

We are driven because our work brings us power and pride that dulls our deeper desire for delight.

We are far more practiced and comfortable with work than play. We are far better at handling difficulties than joy. When faced with a problem, we can jump into it or avoid it; we can use our skills or resources to manage it. But what do we do with joy? We can only receive it and allow it to shimmer, settle, and in due season, depart; leaving us alive and happy but desiring to hold on to what can’t be grasped or controlled.

Joy is lighter than sorrow and escapes our grasp with a fairylike, ephemeral adieu. Sorrow settles in like a 280-pound boar that has no intention of ever departing. One calls us to action and the other to grace. Which is easier: to work for your salvation with self-earned power of self-righteousness or to receive what is not deserved or owed, but freely given and fully humbling?”

Why not take two — or better yet, ten? Ten minutes of quiet — right now before you chicken out (or I — I always try to complete my own assignments:). Set your phone on silent; set your timer to go off. Close your eyes or keep them open. Remember, dream, enjoy — something — for surely if you are breathing, there is some single joy to contemplate. (I apologize for the preachy tone — it’s to myself:). P.S. This is going to totally throw my schedule off — just think — 10 minutes late for the rest of the day!

“So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”  Gen. 2:3

(If you’ve missed previous weeks, I am now taking sabbatical on Sundays from posting.  Check back tomorrow for some Monday encouragement.)