Ready or Not...

I have upheld the Sabbath by my standards.  I will commit to the Sabbath if:

• I have had a productive week
• I do not have TOO many things to do
• Not working won't put me behind THAT much
• The house is clean (ha, when does that happen!)
• If it's between these hours with these hours carved out to do some work still

You get the drift.  I commit to the Sabbath if it's convenient for me.
Wait for it...
I commit to the Sabbath when I think I've earned it.  There I go again, carrying the whole burden of endless responsibilities on my shoulders.

Thank God for His Wisdom.  I do not have to earn the Sabbath.  In fact, being reckless about the Sabbath has much value.
I am listening to the voices of those much wiser than I--more than that, I am breathing in their freedom and living to their heartbeat:

"The rest of God...is not a reward for finishing...It's a sheer gift.  It is a stop-work order in the midst of work that's never complete, never polished.  Sabbath is not the break we're allotted at the tail end of completing all our tasks and chores, the fulfillment of all our obligations.  It's the rest we take smack-dab in the middle of them, without apology, without guilt, and for no better reason that God told us we could" (Buchanan The Rest of God)

"Sabbath is more than the absence of work; it is not just a day off, when we catch up on television or errands.  It is the presence of something that arises when we consecrate a period of time to listen to what is most deeply beautiful, nourishing, or true.  It is time consecrated with our attention, our mindfulness, honoring those quite forces of grace or spirit that sustain and heal us" (Muller Sabbath).

"Isn't that the point?  To stop in the middle of everything, not just when it's all done?"  (Dave--the husband, While Driving)

"Sabbath is not dependent upon our readiness to stop.  We do not stop when we are finished.  We do not stop when we complete our phone calls, finish our project, get through this tack of messages, or get out this report that is due tomorrow [or plan for the week, or grade from last week, or read the assigned readings, or finish my master's work or clean the house or ...].  We stop because it is time to stop.  Sabbath requires surrender" (Muller Sabbath).


Sabbath IS surrender.

Sabbath is SURRENDER.

This is paradoxical.  I have to rest in God's mysterious ways to work through contradictions.  By not working, my work in the end will be more meaningful, productive, effective.  Through choosing not to work, I am trusting that in the end, I will produce more work.

You see, it is impossible for a teacher to accomplish all he/she needs to accomplish to be ready for the next week.  We are in a perpetually state of "behind."  Constantly catching up.  I constantly battle with: that if I don't work on the weekend as much as I need to, than I will be behind.  But is that true?  Really?  At its essence?  Or do I trust, surrender, that consecrating time for what truly matters--my God, my husband, my home, my heart, my body--is far more beneficial, though mysterious?

I keep drifting towards these Scriptures as I think of all this:
"...give, and it will be given to you.  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap" (Luke 6)
"Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind" (Ecclesiastes 4).

And so this week, I did not do any work all weekend.  We cleaned our house on Saturday.  And then Dave and I spent time Sunday practicing the Sabbath.  And it was..........

perfect bliss wrapped with a bow of beauty.