The Sabbath has been on my mind & heart lately.

Here in Malawi – there is a lot of time to think. There is a lot of time to be still. There is a lot of time to listen. This is great right? Yes, so great – but so hard too. The hard part is letting go of the 27 years prior to this one where life was busy, busy, busy (besides age 1-10 maybe) and I was never able to practice thinking, being still, or listening very well. I feel like a guilty slug for sitting still & I know a lot of people who also feel guilty about it too.

I got through the end of Leviticus yesterday – and man, was it a challenging task. It’s jam packed with all sorts of crazy rules that God gave to Israel back near the beginning. Rules about sacrifice – rules about sickness – rules about sex & food. Rules about everything. Many times throughout the book, Moses writes that the Lord commanded the Israelites to keep the Sabbath – He’s always talking about it. In Exodus, God, (after saving the day big time in Egypt) tells Moses to tell the Israelites, “Observe the Sabbath day, keep it holy. Work six days & do everything you need to. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don’t do any work. Not you, nor your son, nor your daughter…for in six days God made heaven, Earth, and sea, & everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day.” God even tells the Israelites to give the land a Sabbath year every seventh year – even the land gets a break.

God commanded his people to rest. Be still. Take a load off.

I was reading Velvet Elvis (by Rob Bell) this morning when the Sabbath came up again. He was writing on the subject of healing, & he was describing a time when he needed some in his life. He said:

“There are so many layers to the healing of the soul. One practice that has brought incredible healing is the taking of a Sabbath. Now when we read the word Sabbath, most of us think of a day in the week, which is what it is. But I have learned that the real issue behind the Sabbath isn’t which day of the week it is but how we live all the time.

I decided to start taking one day a week to cease from work. And what I discovered is that I couldn’t even do it at first. I would go into a depression. By the afternoon I would be so…low.

Sabbath is taking a day a week to remind myself that I did not make the world & that it will continue to exist without my efforts.

Sabbath is a day when my work is done, even if it isn’t.

Sabbath is a day when my job is to enjoy. Period. Sabbath is a day when I am fully available to myself and those I love most.

Sabbath is a day when I remember that when God made the world, he saw that it was good.

Sabbath is a day when I produce nothing.

I realized that my life was all about keeping the adrenaline buzz going and that I was only really happy when I was going all the time. When I stopped to spend a day to remember that I am loved just because I exist, I found out how much of my efforts were about earning something I already have.

Sabbath is a day when I remind myself that I am not a machine.

Sabbath is a day when at the end I say, “I didn’t do anything today,” and I don’t add, “And I feel so guilty.”

Sabbath is a day when my phone is turned off, I don’t check my email, and you can’t get a hold of me.

Jesus wants to heal our souls, wants to give us the shalom of God. And so we have to stop. We have to slow down. We have to sit still and stare out the window & let the engine come to an idle. We have to listen to what our inner voice is saying.”

Think. Be still. Listen.

Mandatory time to chill out.

Because of the perfect environment that Malawi provides to practice this – I’m committing myself to making it happen for 27 & beyond.

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