Someone once said, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life; go, and make the most of it.” Wise words, and advice worth taking. So I am going, and beginning this day where I began this blog – with the concept of Sabbath rest.
I’m re-reading Mudhouse Sabbath slowly, with good coffee and a thoughtful heart, and this morning I read this passage from Nan Fink’s Stranger in the Midst as quoted by Lauren Winner:
“Shabbat is like nothing else. Time as we know it does not exist for these twenty-four hours, and the worries of the week soon fall away. A feeling of joy appears. The smallest object, a leaf or a spoon, shimmers in a soft light, and the heart opens. Shabbat is a meditation of unbelievable beauty.” (Mudhouse Sabbath, p. 2)
Shabbat. A day of rest, set apart – holy – unto the Lord. How do we create a day like that in this crazy, mixed-up world we live in? I’m still trying to figure that out.
Yesterday was a Shabbat of sorts – well, yesterday and Friday night wrapped up in one. And it was completely unintentional. I had a plan. It involved cleaning and grocery shopping and homework and all the things that need to be done. Instead, a number of other things happened.
photo courtesy of ©Depositphotos.com / nuchylee
Friday night: I went shopping for a book for a friend (book store=temple on occasion; it’s where I go to rest when the parks are closed), got only the essentials from the store for a dish for an early Thanksgiving dinner I am going to today, talked on the phone to a friend who is sick, went for a walk with another friend who may not have needed me to be there (since I didn’t have much to say but rather like Job’s friends in their wiser days just sat/walked in silence for the most part) but it felt like the right place to be.
Then Saturday: slept in, felt compelled to get online and found a couple of online friends in need of a friend, talked to my best friend on the phone, cleaned only a little, made lunch for a friend, had lunch with said friend for 4.5 hours (we migrated to dinner at Baker’s Square) and met another friend for coffee, and stayed out till 10:00pm on accident because the conversation was just so good….
And that’s just the surface of all that went on… it wasn’t my plan. I had so many things to do. But in the moment it seemed God was saying, “Slow down, Hap. Step out of all this for a minute and listen. Go where I send you. Flow with this for right now. The stuff will still be there on Monday. Today I have things for you to do and to say that are not on your agenda, but they are on Mine.”
And it was a good day. It was restful, to spend time with people I care so much about. To pour into those that needed pouring into, and to be poured into by them. To realize, at the end of the day, that in spite of all that’s going on in my turbulent, churned up, plate-tectonics-like life right now, I am richly blessed. I have a roof over my head, food (at least for today!) in my fridge, a job to go to that does have its up sides, and a community – internationally – of brothers and sisters in Christ who love me and see more in me than I see in myself, and I serve a God who, with everything else He has to do, took time to make sure I knew He cared about me.
I can’t tell you how many people have spoken into my life the words I have needed to hear over the past four weeks. Some of you have been among them, and you don’t even know the details… it’s crazy, and cool, and amazing, and incredible, and I am so blessed. And to realize that blessedness enables me to walk into this day, the first day of the rest of my life, at rest. Remembering, trusting, knowing that I serve a good and gracious God who knows me – and it’s going to be so much better than just alright.
“Has the sun risen in the east?”
“It has – and it’s going to be a beautiful day.”
– Ever After
