Sabbath

I'm reading /going through a bible study called, "Breathe," by Priscilla Shirer. It's about the Sabbath.

"The purpose of God's Sabbath day was not to put up His proverbial feet, take a load off, and chill out after creating the universe in the previous days. He wasn't tired. He was expressing His satisfaction. Creation was complete, so He rested. An in doing so, He introduced the concept of rest to humanity."

God himself rested - why do I think I'm exempt from that??

One of the questions in the book is, "In what ways have you experienced difficulty or harm as a result of rejecting God's command to stop and practice tranquility?" Not hearing from God clearly or knowing His direction for me, not spending as much time with Him, allowing sin to grow, not having peace, and not having the fruit of the spirit (like joy! and self-control!).

"Some of us have made an idol of exhaustion. The only time we know we have done enough is when we're running on empty and when the ones we love most are the ones we see the least." - Barbara Brown Taylor

I am currently in a season of life that is not packed out with things to do all the time - praise the Lord. But as Shirer points out, it's not just about your time, it's also about too much going on in your heart / mind. I don't "work" on Sundays, but it's so much more than just refraining from work on Sundays. It's about having margin in all areas of your life. When your schedule is too packed, your relationships suffer, you don't work at 100% at whatever you are currently doing, you get sick more often, and your brain / heart gets too full and distracted. Everything gets affected in your life.

I love how Shirer pointed out that it wasn't just about stopping work, but it's about stopping anything that you think is becoming an idol so that it doesn't become an idol. That includes SLEEP and social media and things we find as "restful" that might be something that is actually taking too much precedence in our lives.