More On Rest
Damn. Rest is HARD. Rest is VERY VERY VERY HARD.
You would think it would be simple. Sleep is fun. Relaxation is what we are always striving for. We delude ourselves into believing that we work hard and fast so we can have more free time doing whatever we want. At least that’s what I thought. That’s what I have been assuming for years.
People call me ‘efficient’ because I get hard jobs done quickly and well. I tell them I’m ‘lazy’ because I really just want to be doing something else. Apparently, I’m full of it.
After my first official Sabbath this past Saturday, all I can think about is all the grading I DIDN’T get done; how stressed I am that I took time to relax. All the work left to be done, and not enough time during the week to do it. Plus trying to eat healthier, Plus trying to go to bed earlier, Plus trying not to spend 13 hours at work everyday. Plus reading my Bible in the morning.
What have I found: being healthy is TOO MUCH WORK, because it stops me . . . well, from working.
But this morning, when I read my Bible, I was beat over the head with Habbakuk. (That’s right, a minor prophet. You know you’re in trouble when you’re listening to an angry, God-driven, damnation speaking, y’all seriously suck at this covenant thing saying Jew from the Torah. )
These were the two passages I was shown, the first I wrote a song based on (many moons ago, still unrecorded) and the other was used at Trailhead on Sunday:
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. 2:1-4
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. 3:17 -19
For some reason, at the time, they both told me not to give up on this whole Sababth thing, and at the end of the day, when 6pm rolled around, and I was still sitting in my classroom grading papers I normally would have graded on Saturday, and I was thinking about completely scraping this whole Sabbath deal, and find comfortable cop-outs, they came back to my mind.
This is what I’m supposed to do. I’ll stop trying to figure out ‘why’ or see how it best fits my life or is benefical, cause I can talk myself out of anything. It’s enough that it’s what I should do, amoung the other things I should do. And it’s up to Him to sort the rest out.
Pun intended.
Because “the just shall live by his faith” and “I will joy in the God of my salvation” because
He “is my strength” and He will damn well take care of what He said He will.
The fact that it is almost midnight and I just graded a stack of papers, not withstanding.
Shalom
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