A week ago Friday, my family went camping with some friends at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point. The plan was to leave as soon as the boys were out of school, and return home Saturday evening: approximately 24 hours away from home.
I was really looking forward to spending this time away. I had taken Ginger to work in the morning, returned home, did some housework and preparation for our trip, then returned at noon to pick Ginger up. We were going to go out to lunch, using some Olive Garden gift cards we had received at Christmas but hadn’t used yet. Also, I needed to stop by REI to pick up something for our trip. Both REI and Olive Garden are on Beach Blvd. in Huntington Beach, and Ginger’s school was almost on the way, and we had just the right amount of time to go to Huntington Beach and be back in time to get the boys.
Except that, when I picked Ginger up, she said she had to go home first. I said, “Fine, but home is back that way, and we’re going this way; we’ll go home after lunch.”
“No,” she said. “I want to go home first.”
I did some time calculations in my head. I didn’t think we had time to go back home, then go to REI and lunch before the boys got out of school. It seemed to me that we might have to change our lunch plans, and stop at REI after we got the boys, when we were on our way to Dana Point.
To make a long story short, I got upset. Unreasonably upset. I knew at the time that it was unreasonable, so I tried to keep quiet about it.
It wasn’t easy.
As it turned out, we did have enough time. Maybe not as much time to browse around at REI as I would have liked; but then, I could get myself into a lot of trouble browsing around at REI, so maybe it’s just as well.
And all the while, I pondered why I had become so upset. As I said, I knew at the time that my level of frustration was unreasonable, totally disproportionate to the circumstances. What in the world had happened to me?
It took me several days to discover the answer.
Meanwhile, we ended up having a wonderful time in Dana Point. We tent-camped; and, if you remember what the weather was like last weekend, there was the feel of excitement and adventure as we kept one eye on the dark clouds, hoping that it wouldn’t rain.
It didn’t.
We went whale watching. We went on hikes. We watched the Dana Point Festival of Whales parade. We laughed and told stories with our friends. The kids – all five of them – acted out a little play for the grown-ups. And unlike my time of rushing around before we left, this was a time to relax, to not worry about time.
For me, that is an essential component of a true Sabbath rest. A true Sabbath rest for me is one in which I do not need to rush. Rushing is stressful. Racing the clock makes my heart race, and not in a good way.
During the week, it seems like we’re always racing the clock, always worrying about time. Most days I get the family up at exactly 6:30. They need to be dressed and at the breakfast table by 7:00. By 7:20, they need to be brushing their teeth, putting shoes on, and grabbing their school supplies so they can be out the door by 7:30.
7:30 is the goal, but it’s usually a few frantic minutes later when I finally wave goodbye as Ginger takes the boys to school and herself to work. She’d take me, too, but by then I’m already worked up by the frantic rush to get everyone out the door that I need my fifteen minute walk to church to calm myself back down.
Once here, there are more deadlines: the sermon and worship preparation needs to be done by Sunday, that’s the most important. Staff meeting is on Monday at 9:30; the Religious Leaders Association meeting is Wednesday at noon. Is there Chi-Rho on Wednesday night? Am I prepared for Sunday’s Lenten study group? Am I ready for CYF on Sunday? Better get something prepared, it will be here before you know it.
Is the board report done? Did I read that chapter for next week’s elders’ meeting? Did I send in my registration for Founders’ Day or regional assembly or the clergy conference in time to get the early bird discount?
2:43 – school’s out. I gotta walk over to Hughes Middle School, get Ethan, walk back. Do some more work in my office while helping Ethan with his algebra.
Go home. Eat dinner. What’s on tonight’s schedule? Scouts? Board meeting? Chi-Rho? Elders? Open House? Interfaith Council meeting? Well, whatever it is, better hurry up and get ready; can’t be late.
Even going to bed is by the clock; can’t stay up too late, or I’ll be too tired in the morning. I don’t need an alarm to wake up in the morning, thank God for that! Although, now that we’re on Daylight Savings time, maybe I should set the alarm just in case….
Does any of that sound familiar? I know it does. I hear you talk about things like little league and dance recitals and girl scouts and Job’s daughters and volleyball and volunteering at the hospital and doctor’s appointments and teacher conferences and hosting out-of-state relatives and job interviews; oh, and don’t forget your newsletter deadline … and do I even bother to mention that it’s now just one month until tax day?
This, more than anything, is what I need a break from. God knows I need a break from it all, which is why God commands that I take a Sabbath rest.
God doesn’t suggest that I take a Sabbath rest. It’s a command. #4 of the ten commandments, to be exact. You have three commandments that speak of our relationship to God, and you have six commands that speak on our relationships with one another, and right in between them, at #4, is the command to observe the Sabbath.
However, this command, the command to observe the Sabbath, is the only command that we actually boast about breaking. No one goes around boasting, “I have stolen more things this week! Just one thing after another!” No one goes around bragging, “I murdered so many people last month!” And I’ve never heard anyone say, with pride in their voice: “I bore false witness against ten of my neighbors yesterday. Ten!”
But I do hear people talk about how busy they are. “I’ve been going non-stop for weeks now. I haven’t had a moments’ rest! It’s just one thing after another!” They say it as if they are expecting to be admired for their crazy, jam-packed lives, and perhaps some people do admire them for how busy they are, with not even a moments’ rest, but I know for a fact that God does not. Because God has commanded them to take one day a week, and make it a day of rest.
God knows you need a Sabbath….
For me, more than anything, the Sabbath is a day on which time really doesn’t matter. For me, a day of Sabbath rest is a day on which time moves differently. On the Sabbath, a moment can last forever, and yet, at the same time, hours can just fly by.
The 24 hours we spent in Dana Point were like that. We actually did quite a lot. But we didn’t rush to any of it. And sometimes, we just sat, and watched the clouds, and didn’t worry about what we were going to do next. We ate when we were hungry, not when the clock said we should eat. We moved when we felt like moving. We sat when we felt like sitting.
Please don’t ask me what time it is when I am enjoying my day of Sabbath rest. Is it 9:47? Is it quarter past ten? I don’t care, and I don’t want to know. Such quantifications of time are meaningless on the Sabbath. If I find myself worrying about what time it is, then it is not a Sabbath rest.
Do we have plans on the Sabbath? Do we have an appointment? Are we planning, for example, to see a movie that starts at a certain time? Are we meeting up with friends?
Fine. But please be ready early. Let’s not rush. Let’s not race the clock. If we end up having a little extra time on our hands, great. We can walk around, maybe grab a cup of tea. But if at any point we find ourselves racing the clock, well, there goes the Sabbath.
If it sounds wonderful, well, it is. It is wonder-ful; a day full of wonder. A day of delight. The Sabbath, as God intended it, is not supposed to be some dull, dreary experience where one sits around and does nothing. It is, instead, a day of delight for humankind. And not only for humankind, but also for animals, the earth – all of creation.
It is a day of pursuing one’s deepest joy, which isn’t necessarily the same thing as avoiding work. In fact, some people who just can’t let go of their worries, or who just can’t clear some time in their calendar for a Sabbath rest, may find it to be a great deal of work to take a Sabbath rest. Just like prayer or worship or any other spiritual practice, Sabbath requires, well, practice.
The Israelites couldn’t stop working on the Sabbath. They couldn’t just sit and enjoy the abundance of food they already had; they felt compelled to go out into the fields, and gather manna, even on the seventh day, the day that God told them to not work. But they didn’t gain anything from the work they did on that seventh day, did they?
If you work yourself too hard; become too stressed-out and filled with anxiety; if you don’t take a break from the craziness of modern life; well, you’re not going to gain anything by it. The benefits of working non-stop will not materialize, just like the manna did not materialize on the seventh day. Just stop. Catch your breath. Observe the Sabbath.
If your Sabbath rest involves spending time with friends or family, if it involves a feast (which, by the way, is a great way to celebrate the Sabbath), or if it requires any work at all, then you are going to have to prepare for the Sabbath. Do your shopping ahead of time. Do your cleaning ahead of time. Do as much of the cooking as possible ahead of time, so you don’t have to worry or be anxious on the Sabbath. Once the Sabbath starts, you don’t want to be troubled by such things, or it won’t really be a Sabbath.
Which, I now realize, is why I got so unreasonably upset last weekend. My Sabbath was set to start at 3:00 Friday afternoon, when we climbed into the car and headed toward Doheny State Beach. I wanted all my preparation to be done by then. I didn’t want to have to stop on the way and shop for something we needed. I so hate shopping. To leave that task for after my Sabbath had already started was unthinkable.
It wasn’t until I started writing my sermon Monday afternoon that I understood this. It wasn’t until Monday afternoon that I even realized that Sabbath was what I was looking forward to. Because the truth is, I don’t always make it a point to observe the Sabbath each week.
By the way, that’s not a boast. It’s a confession.
Clearly, one must be intentional about observing the Sabbath. It doesn’t just happen. Left to chance, something is going to fill that blank space on your calendar, and odds are, it won’t be something that you are going to take delight in.
And one more thing, if you haven’t already figured it out: Sabbath rest doesn’t necessarily have to be on Sunday. Some of us have way too many responsibilities on Sunday for that to be a day of rest. If that’s true for you, then perhaps you will want to observe the Sabbath on a Saturday, or a Friday, or whatever day works best for you. It can be from 3:00 Friday afternoon to 3:00 Saturday afternoon, or from sunset one day to sunset the next. That is, after all, how the ancient Jews defined a Sabbath.
And I’m not going to be legalistic insist that it be exactly 24 hours, and I’m not going to make a list of what you can and can’t do, although I do know that if you don’t set some guidelines for yourself, about what you will and won’t do on the Sabbath, then the cares and worries of the other six days will creep in and destroy your one holy day of the week.
Because that’s what Sabbath is: a holy day. Just as the sanctuary is holy space, Sabbath is holy time. A day to truly enjoy and take delight in the life God has given you. It is the day that makes you smile when you look back on it the first three days of the week, and the day you look forward to with joyful expectation the last three days of the week.
Trust me. No, better yet, trust God: You need a day like that.
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