Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.
Exodus 20:8-10
Tuesday morning I was in no kind of mood for reflection.
You see, lately, Maggie's been asserting herself as the lovely, strong, independent young woman she's sure to become, which unfortunately at age 3 1/2, translates to the occasional raging tantrum. And Soren, God bless his little heart, is his usual laid-back 9-month-old self, which translates into a feast on the gourmet cuisine of just about anything in reach, without regard to edibility. In short, they both seem to need Laura's and my undivided attention these days, which is a problem, because our attention is kind of all over the place these days.
It bears mention that I did have a wonderful day off on Monday watching the kids. Got three loads of laundry done, worked out, took them grocery shopping, even caught an episode or two of Star Trek: TNG. The kids were great, and I was even less tempted than usual to bribe them with TV shows in the interest of a peaceful house. They really were on their best behavior. But still, I was a little exhausted by 4pm when Laura got home.
Which brings me to Tuesday morning. I awoke, refreshed and ready to work, only to remember that today was Laura's day to help out at Maggie's preschool, which meant it was once again "Take your son to the office day" for me. Plus, Salem was hosting a community environmental forum and inviting some fairly high-profile people in to give presentations on faith-based environmental advocacy. Soren behaved himself admirably through the whole event, but I admit I still went into it with a twinge of guilt that I wasn't able to give my full, undivided attention to the topic at hand.
But as one of our featured speakers, Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, a leader in interfaith environmental efforts here in Maryland, began to address the gathering, God began to do something in my spirit. Rabbi Cardin told us that for many years, she had believed God gave us the Sabbath for the purpose of the rest of the week: that we take a day to "recharge" in order to help us have energy to work and be productive the other six days. But she went on to say she no longer believes this. Instead, Rabbi Cardin suggested that maybe we work the other six days, for the purpose of the Sabbath day: that holy day, where God takes the reins, and we simply enjoy being together with God and one another in this abundant world. Rather than taking a Sabbath in order to work, what if we worked in order to be ready for a Sabbath?
I was blown away. You see, as a pastor I am both blessed and cursed to have a job I'm good at, and that I believe in with every fiber of my being. I make my living doing something that (shhh! don't tell anyone at my church, but...) I would probably try and find a way to do even if nobody paid me! In the current job market, where too many guys and gals my age are trading time for money, doing whatever's around just to pay the bills, I never, ever want to take for granted what a joy this is.
But at the same time, I may have been getting things upside down. In my own fumbling attempts at Sabbath-keeping (which the Jews, including Jesus himself, have always been WAY better at than us stalwart Protestant types!) I have been putting the cart before the horse. I worry that when I'm not thinking about it, I've occasionally been taking the bare minimum amount of rest--really enjoying family time, date nights with my beautiful wife, trips to the park with kids, taking personal time with God--but with the thought in the back of my head that all this will ultimately make me a more effective pastor. And I believe it will. But that's not why I should be doing it. Instead, the work I do--even the work I truly believe in--should be done in service to Sabbath. In order to make me all the more ready for rest; ready for family; ready for time with God and with God's people; ready for life lived as an authentic human being.
I had things so backwards that it was almost laughable! Here I was, at my job, racked with guilt about somehow giving less than 110%, while the very reason I should be getting up each morning and driving to work, was literally strapped to my chest in a Baby Bjorn!
Does anyone you know, anyone at all, tell you they look forward to being in God's Kingdom because Jesus runs such awesome committee meetings? Or because the Father will have some killer laundry for us to do? Or because the Holy Spirit will help us put together the very best Powerpoint presentations and lesson plans and prospectuses we've ever seen? I sincerely hope not. What I've heard more often than anything, is that God's Kingdom will be full of people we love. People we miss. People we never got to know. And the Persons that know us and love us better than we'll ever know or love ourselves: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Sabbath-keeping is an intentional preview of that end-time Sabbath, when all the world will rest from its labors. Every kind of work we do, should be done in service to that holy time, not in spite of it. So here's my question for you:
What are you working for?
