Sabbath take Eight

In the last post, I asked you to consider and come up with a definition of Sabbath.  I believe such a definition could have two components.  The first would be words describing, painting a picture of the invitation into Sabbath.  I like the phrase, "Sabbath as sacred speed bumps."  Mentally and physically, I know that a speed bump slows me down.  Sabbath is a different pace, I can't just keep going on cruise control.  Sabbath can also jar me like a speed bump.  I can "doth protesth too much" about how necessary and needed I am that I simply cannot be spared to take some time away.  On another level, when I do take that time away, I can feel restless. 

I can sit there trying to be calm and entering into the spacious cathedral of time, only to feel like the dishes in the sink are calling my name.  "Wes, Wes...you can rest after we are clean, dried and put away."  Only then, I see that the floor is dirty.  After cleaning that, I see how the cabinets need fingerprints removed.  Soon, I have spent time cleaning rather than being. 

To be sure, cleaning is good.  But the question becomes, are we staying in perpetual motion as a way of avoidance?  I keep moving so I don't have to deal with the unease?  I keep avoiding the sacred speed bumps so that I can stay on cruise control ~ which is the illusion of  me being in control.

Along side the words you might find to describe and define Sabbath, I think it is important to practical and offer practices.  Sabbath as a sacred speed bump I enter when I sit outside reading or listening to the sermon of trees.  Sabbath as a sacred speed bump I enter when I stop, breathe, letting my soul get a word in edgewise.  Sabbath as a sacred speed bump when I stop trying to fill ever second of my calendar.

I encourage you to keep revisiting and refining the definition.  The beautiful thing about your description is you are not Webster...so you can feel free to change your definition daily or hourly or every minute.

I pray as you seek and search for words that would define a spacious place for rest and being in God's presence, this invitation would offer more than a trace of God's grace.