Put Your List Away
Jesus said it this way; the Sabbath was made for people. To argue about what day it is misses the point. To make it a day of no fun misses the point. To make it a day of rules to keep misses the point. From a Hebrew perspective, the Sabbath was a day for you to get the energy you need for the other six days. The Sabbath was a day for God to mend and put you back together again, it was a day where you could come to God with all of your brokenness.
Within the previous six days somebody said something hurtful to you and you’re carrying that crack, in the previous six days something stressful happened, in the previous six days something happened that affected how you looked at life and you need that Sabbath to come to God and say ‘Renew my thinking, fix me up’. If you don’t have your cracks repaired every six days the whole thing begins to look like a shattered window.
Primarily the definition of Sabbath was that it was a day that was unlike any other.
Do you have one day in seven that is unlike the other days, and how is it different? Let me ask you some tough questions. What day of the week do you not check your email? What day of the week do you put your list away? Wives, what day of the week do you sit back and tell yourself that your house will be there to clean tomorrow? I know husbands in this world that would rather stick a hot poker in their eye than for the phone to ring and an unexpected guest come over. Their wives say, ‘We’ve gotta clean’!!!
What day of the week do you put your list away? What day of the week are you actually okay with the laundry not being done? Is there a day of the week that I can’t get in touch with you? Is there a day of the week that your chores don’t matter? It’s not that you’re lazy. God affirms work and hates laziness, but one day in seven it’s got to be okay, because otherwise you’re a machine and your entire worth is being defined by your bricks and you cannot reflect on Who God is.
Sabbath is a day where you pretend that your work is done even if it isn’t. How freeing is that? What would your life look like if you had a day of peace, a day out from the craziness, a day out to rest and to reflect on God and let Him heal you?
Grace & Peace,
Shane Willard