MEDITATION:
Written by Ken Shigematsu, a contemporary pastor and author. This is an excerpt from his book “God in my Everything.”
Thomas Merton says the most pervasive form of violence in the modern world is busyness…not drugs, not guns, but busyness. The Chinese character for busy combines the pictographs for heart and death, suggesting that busyness kills the heart. Time flows in seven-day cycles. God’s design, as we see in the creation story, is that we work for six days and rest for one. When we violate this rhythm of rest, we damage ourselves and deprive those we love. Ironically, most of us feel that we are too busy to take time for a Sabbath day once a week. Perhaps you agree that Sabbath is a good thing, even important, but actually practicing it on a weekly basis is more difficult. When was the last time you stopped work and really unplugged from all your electronic gadgets for a day—or even part of a day? Sabbath reminds us that God invites us to stop. In fact, it’s more than an invitation—it’s a command. Wayne Muller wisely says, “We stop because it is time to stop. Sabbath requires surrender. If we only stop when we are finished, we will never stop—because our work is never completely done…Sabbath keeping is not merely good advice for you to lead a nicely-balanced life. It is a practice that is knit into the created order.
Sabbath gives you permission to stop from your busyness and simply be. To paraphrase Mark Twain, “Our busyness is like the weather. Everyone complains about it, but no one does anything about it.” Instead of complaining about our busyness or assuming it’s just a fact of life, we need to ask ourselves why we are so busy. Sabbath helps us to question our assumptions. The truth is we may be busy because we feel a need to validate our worth. Sabbath gives us a chance to step off the hamster whell and listen to the voice that tells us we are beloved by God. The Sabbath heals us from our compulsion to measure ourselves by what we accomplish, who we know, and the influence we have. Sabbath enables us to define ourselves less by our achievements and more as beloved daughters and sons of God. As we become more aware of how much we are cherished as children of God, we grow in our trust of God.
PRAYER:
Written by Peter Greig, a contemporary writer and church planter. He cofounded the 24-7 prayer movement around the world.
May this day bring Sabbath rest to my heart and my home. May God’s image in me be restored, and my imagination in God be re-storied. May the gravity of material things be lightened, and the relativity of time slow down. May I know grace to embrace my own finite smallness in the arms of God’s infinite greatness. May God’s Word feed me and His Spirit lead me into the week and into the life to come.
MUSIC MEDITATION:
Thy Holy Sabbath Lord. Cherubim Sounds. A hymn from the 1880s.
Pathways Press.com 