Sabbath

It's been a crazy few months. Days and weeks go by and I find myself wondering, "What have I been doing?" I make lists and check things off the list, but why does it still feel I haven't accomplished anything? Like I'm spinning my wheels?

I was refreshed today to re-read some thoughts on taking a Sabbath. It seems so simple, but so difficult to accomplish. What does a Sabbath look like for me? It's NOT leisure, for leisure to me is draining, unfulfilling and absent of anything sacred. I need to know, not just what to avoid, but what to pursue. What can I do to refresh my soul and what do I need to avoid that whithers it? So as I ponder these things I am reminded by Mark Buchanan in his book "The Rest of God" the reasons for Sabbath and what I need to be pursuing:

"Real Sabbath, the kind that empties and fills us, depends on complete confidence and trust, that is rooted in a deep conviction that God is good and God is sovereign. There's no rest for those who don't believe that. If God works all things together for good for those who love him and are called to his purposes, you can relax. If he doesn't, start worrying. If God can take any mess, any mishap, any wastage, any wreckage, any anything, and choreograph beauty and meaning from it, then you can take a day off. If he can't, get busy. Either God's always at work, watching the city, building the house, or you need to try harder. Either God is good and in control, or it all depends on you."

Thankfully it doesn't all depend on me. God's got it under control, it's when I mistakenly think that I have any form of control that I get weary.

And a final quote from Mark Buchanan about what it is I need to pursue:

"God is always speaking. . . but we're not always listening. We don't make the effort and so fail to go boldly into his throne room to receive what we need: a word that can pierce, and cut, and heal. Here's the paradox: If we don't listen, we never enter his rest. Yet if we don't enter his rest, we never listen."