Quietly seeking....

Timmy took this picture a while ago, but I think it speaks to where I am presently......Do you ever have those times when you feel like being alone and quiet? When the sound of kids and even your favorite CD burn your ears and kinda irritate you? Well, there's something wrong with you!

Just kidding. I've been feeling that way for a while. Craving the silence and then when (and if) I get it, I don't even know what to do with it!

I was talking with a friend recently who convicted me on the fact that Tim and I do not have a Sabbath. Sure we have "days off" from work (they're on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and we sometimes get to go to church with the kids on Sundays...but that turns into a really busy work day. On our days off, because everyone else is working, we tend to run errands and finish the projects that we had started before the kids arrived the previous week. But a Sabbath day? I don't think we've even spoken that word for quite some time.

What is it about us nowadays that causes us to be driven to work all the time as though it is an honorable, noble or desired thing....I mean, why do "work-a-holics" get some kind of status because they can spin thousands of miles a minute working to please everyone around them?

I left the house a bit dirty this week......and Tim and I went to the beach to watch the sunset and play "Scrabble" (I beat him again.), take pictures and have dessert. It was wonderful...we had a great time....but why couldn't the whole day been like that? What was so important that we couldn't take a FULL Sabbath day to enjoy the presence of God through His creation?

He does talk about this topic often in the Bible... I found 151 times! But the passage that ministered to me the most is Hebrews 4. The whole chapter is talking about Salvation and a permanent Sabbath rest in the future for those who follow Jesus, but what is striking to me are verses 9-11, which say,

"There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience."

So NOT entering into "that rest" sets us up for disobedience....and this is true! Think about the last time you worked long and hard...think about when you finally hit the breakdown burn-out point when you became impatient with yourself or others and maybe snapped at them....could it be that you hadn't entered into HIS rest for a while? It certainly has been my reason for having to set up firm boundaries in my job, with friends, the church, and even my family. I need to enter into my Saviour's rest and for more than just an hour or two....a day. A full day. Now that doesn't mean that I will not tend to those whom God places in my care on a Sabbath... Jesus healed on the Sabbath (take a look at Matthew and Luke!)....but I will be "choosy" with how I spend my time that day....releasing the power of guilt and expectation to God so that I can be FULLY enjoying His gifts to me....His rest without guilt, without having to be "productive". Rest is not a sign of weakness or failure...it is required by God and a necessity for a heart after God's heart.

Is it time you rested?