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#struggles #rest *

February 24, 2015 by Leave a Comment

#struggles

#struggles #rest *
Sycamore Creek Church
February 22/23, 2015
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

Today we wrap up our series #struggles with what may be the most important message of the five weeks.  Throughout this series we’ve been learning how to follow Jesus in a selfie-centered world, and today we’re looking at how we #rest.  Rest is so important in a world where we are tethered to our devices.  How do we find rest for our soul in the midst of our tech tethers?

I have a love-hate relationship with technology.  I love sharing bits of life with others.  I love the creativity of social media.  But I also hate social media and tech.  Sometimes I feel like I’m a slave to it.  I feel like I don’t own the tech.  I feel like it owns me.  Carey Nieuwhof, a Canadian pastor, says, “Like money, social media is a great servant but a horrible master.”

Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of many of the books of the Bible, says:

You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.
~Paul (1 Corinthians 6:12 NLT)

Some of us are slaves to food.  Some of us are slaves to images.  Some of us are slaves to tech and social media.  Some of us don’t have a problem with this.  We’re still back in the “dumb phone” era.  So you can just sit back and relax, and smirk at the person fidgeting with their phone.  But you may really need this message if you’re addicted to social media.  Here’s how to know:

Top 7 Ways to Know You Might be Addicted to Social Media
7. You plan your #tbt’s weeks in advance.
6. Your cat has its own Instagram page.
5. You look forward to going to the bathroom so you can get to level 7 of your favorite game.
4. You change your Facebook profile more than your twelve-year-old daughter.
3. You sleep with your phone like a teddy bear.
2. You say “sorrynotsorry” in real life.
1. You come onto your spouse by texting #areyouinthemood.

I’m not sure I’m totally that bad, but I realized just how dependent I had become on my phone last February when we took a long weekend vacation to Chicago.  Sarah dropped Micah, my three-year-old at the time, and I off at the train station in the suburbs.  A couple of minutes after she drove off, I went to look at what time it was.  I don’t wear a watch, so I reached for my cell phone.  I didn’t feel it in my normal pocket.  So I checked my other pockets.  Slowly it dawned on me that I had left my cell phone in the car.  The train was about to arrive at any moment.  To make matters worse, Sarah had just gotten a new cell phone and I didn’t have her phone number memorized.  In that moment I felt the anxiety begin to build.  I was about to take a three-year-old into one of the biggest cities in the world with no cell phone.  We were planning on going to the zoo.  I had planned to use Google Maps to navigate the public transportation system to get us to the zoo.   How would I find the zoo?  How would we find anything?  As I stood there feeling my blood pressure rise, I pushed my fear down and told myself, “You went to college in the suburbs of Chicago.  You’ve ridden this train without a cell phone dozens of times.  You don’t need your phone.”  And so as the train pulled up and the doors opened, Micah and I walked hand in hand into a technology free day.  It turned out to be one of the best and most memorable days of my life.  I’m not exaggerating.  But that’s a longer story for another day.  The point for now is that in that moment I realized just how close to being a slave to my phone I had become.  Lord have mercy!

Here’s how dependent we’ve become as a culture:

58% of people don’t go one waking hour without checking their phone.
59% of people check email as it comes in and 89% check it daily on vacation.
80% of teenagers sleep with their phones.
84% of people believe they couldn’t go one day without their phones.

So are you one of those people who checks your phone first thing in the morning and last thing at night?  If so, this message is for you.  I’ve been paying attention to my own habits as I’ve been preparing for this message.  I’ve noticed something about myself.  My default is to check my phone when I have some down time.  I’m standing in line and instead of starting a conversation with the person next to me, I check my phone.  I’m waiting for someone and instead of waiting quietly, I check my phone.  I’ve got a couple of free minutes before we have to get in the car and leave, I check my phone.  I don’t think I’m alone.  Our minds are not shutting down.  We don’t work with long stretches with great productivity.

There are costs to our addiction with our phones.  National Public Radio recently explored the effect of social media and our phones on our creativity.  Here’s what they found:

“If you’ve ever felt like your smartphone was getting in the way of a breakthrough thought, you may not be off base. Research suggests that our brains need downtime and that people have some of their most creative ideas when they’re bored. The constant distraction of our phones can get in the way of that.”
~National Public Radio

Our RPMs are always running.  You feel overwhelmed and you don’t know why.  You’re short with kids and don’t know why.  You’re spiritually dead and don’t know why.  Maybe it’s because your brain is always on.  Our bodies need rest, and our souls need to rest.  Our souls need to be disconnected from bing bing bing bing bing…

Let’s go back and remember what Paul said:

You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.
~Paul (1 Corinthians 6:12 NLT)

I refuse to be mastered by anything.  Christ in me and you is bigger than any addiction we’ve got.  And we’re missing out on so much.  God has a special rest for you in Christ.

So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest.~Hebrews 4:9-11 NLT

God didn’t plan for you to run run run run run run.  God planned for you to rest, to rest in  God.  St. Augustine, a 4th and 5th century church leader, said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our soul is restless until it finds rest in you.”  And Jesus said:

 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
~Jesus (Matthew 11:28-29 NLT)

So now you’ve got a choice.  You apply this and do what God wants you to do, or you go on living as you always have.  Here are two ways to apply it, or two hashtags for #rest.

1.     #bestill
We’ve got to learn how to slow down and be still.  The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible.  We read in several places about being still:

Be still, and know that I am God.
~Psalm 46:10 NLT

Sometimes you tell a little kid to SIT DOWN!  Some times you’ve got to talk to your soul like a little kid and say SIT DOWN!  Sit down and be quiet.

Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
~Psalm 131:2 NLT

I’ve had to learn to be still for my own mental health.  I’ve shared with you before that I struggle at times with anxiety.  When it’s at its worst my brain starts repeating unpleasant things like it’s a skipping broken record and there’s no off switch.  I’ve gone to several different counselors over the years to help me with strategies for dealing with this anxiety.  The best suggestion and most effective tip I’ve ever been given was to practice breathing exercises each morning.  I know, it sounds hokey.  Basically you sit for five or ten minutes and quietly breathe.  There’s a website that I use called Pray as You Go that has a breathing exercise MP3.  I spend five minutes simply doing nothing but breathing.  I just sit in the presence of God.

“But what about the kids?” you ask.  Good question.  Finding time to sit still for five minutes requires much more creativity if you’ve got kids, especially little ones.  I have three suggestions:

  1. Get up before they do (that means you have to go to bed earlier).
  2. Find a little time after they go to bed.
  3. Set up a babysitting swap with a friend.  We’ve got so many people with little kids in our church.  They will understand.  You watch my kids today and I’ll watch your kids tomorrow.

If we’re going to receive the #rest that God wants for us, we’re going to have learn to be still.

2.     #makeaplan
Beyond learning to be still, if we’re really addicted to social media and technology, we need to #makeaplan to break the addiction.  The wisdom of the Proverbs says

Wise people think before they act;
fools don’t—and even brag about their foolishness.
~Proverbs 13:16 NLT

So how are you thinking about how you’ll act?  Your plan should have two parts: defense and offense.  Let’s start with the defensive plan.  Make your struggle public.  Let your spouse, friends, family, and small group know that you’re seeking to really free yourself from the slavery of social media and your phone.  Then set some basic boundaries: no phone during dinner and no phone during small group.  Set a time limit: no phone after a certain time of night.  Let’s say that after 10PM, your phone is in some other room off and charging.  You are going to still use your phone but you’re not going to be mastered by it.  Let’s not forget about notifications.  Turn them off.  All of them!  I know it’s hard.  Gretchen Williams, our youth coordinator, got a new phone and posted this about it:

GWilliams

Those notifications are fun.  They play with your brain chemistry.  They train you to respond like Pavlov’s Dog.  I had this notification pop up the other day:

TArthurInstagram

Guess what I clicked.  NOT NOW.  If there was a “Not Never” button, I’d click that.  Turn off your notifications.  If you really need to be available for an emergency of some sort, then leave your phone with someone trusted (an assistant, a secretary, a spouse, etc.).  Consider going off the grid totally from time to time.  Take a once-a-week break on a day of rest, or sabbath.  I don’t look at social media on Fridays, my sabbath day off.  When you’re on vacation, give up email.  I’ve downloaded an autoresponder app I can use on vacation for text messages.  If you text me on vacation, I won’t look at it.  You’ll get an auto response text telling you to call the church office.  Consider fasting from social media during Lent, the forty days that lead up to Easter that begins this Wednesday, February 18.  That’s your defensive plan.

Let’s talk about your offensive plan.   Download an app that monitors your usage like Break Free (Android) or Moment (ios).  Use tech as the primary tool for relating to God.  Check out Pray As You Go or use your phone regularly to share about Sycamore Creek Church.  Use your phone for the Bible.  The best app is probably You Version.  But then make sure you’ve also got daily consistent prayer time.  Go outside and don’t take a picture (or post it online).  You don’t need likes for something God wanted you to love.  Consider really getting away on a spiritual retreat.  The women of our church have a retreat coming up May 1-3 at Miracle Camp.  I’m leading a one-day spiritual retreat on Thursday, March 26th at St. Francis Center in Dewitt.  When you go on this retreat, turn your phone off.  Give your family the retreat phone number for emergencies.  Then you can rest knowing that if a real emergency happens, your family can still contact you through the camp or retreat center.

So now you’re at that point of decision.  Are you going to continue as it is, or are you going to change your life?  Let’s remember where we’ve been in this series

#relationships – Nurture my friends face to face not thumbs to thumbs because God did not shout from heaven.
#contentment – The more we compare, the more discontent we become so be satisfied in Christ alone.
#authenticity – The more filtered we are the more difficult it is to be authentic so be authentic in Christ.
#compassion – The more suffering you see the less you care so let the world know we are Christians by our love for others.
#rest – Our RPMs are going and won’t shut down so don’t be mastered by social media and tech.

The prophet Jeremiah had wise words for us from God:

Thus says the Lord:
Stand at the crossroads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way lies; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls.
~Jeremiah 6:16 NRSV

It’s not the newest tech that is going to bring rest, it’s the ancient paths well traveled that lead us to God.  Take the ancient path and find rest.

* This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Craig Groeschel.

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Earth to Echo – Aliens Away From Home

July 14, 2014 by Leave a Comment

GodOnFilm

 

 

 

 

God on Film: Earth to Echo – Aliens Away From Home
Sycamore Creek Church
July 13/14, 2014
Tom Arthur

 

 

Have you ever felt lost?  Have you ever felt like you’re in the wrong place?  The wrong school?  The wrong friends?  The wrong job? The wrong city?  The wrong marriage?  The wrong life?  The wrong planet?  All of us have felt lost at some point.  All of us have felt a long way from home.  Maybe you even feel lost or away from home right now.  What do you do when you’re lost and away from home?

A hunter went out for a day of hunting and along the way got lost.  After stumbling around in the forest for several hours in was tired, but he kept searching for something that looked like home.  Eventually after several days he stumbled into someone else’s camp. He said, “I sure am glad to see you.  I’ve been lost for three days.” The other hunter replied, “Don’t get too excited, buddy.  I’ve been lost for three weeks.”

A week ago I took my son, Micah, on his first backpacking trip.  We went to North Manitou Island.  I gave him a small whistle to wear around his neck at all times under his shirt.  I told him that if he ever felt scared or lost to blow the whistle.  I told him that his daddy would find him.  Don’t you wish you had a whistle that you could blow when you were lost or scared, and then your heavenly daddy would come find you?

Today I’d like to look at a story in the Bible about a time when Israel was lost and away from home.  I want to give four tips to aliens who find themselves lost and away from home.

1.     We’re All Aliens In Exile
First, you’re not alone.  We read from the prophet Jeremiah about a time when the Babylonian Empire came to Jerusalem and lay siege to the city.  Eventually the walls came down and the Babylonians carted off all the people of influence away to Babylon.  We read in Jeremiah:

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem.
~Jeremiah 29:4 NLT

The siege lasted four months and Jerusalem fell in 597BC.  The Hebrew people were no longer a Jewish cultural cocoon.  They could no longer assume certain religious rituals or cultural practices or communal identity.  They couldn’t plan on eating kosher food.  They couldn’t plan on observing the Sabbath.  They couldn’t follow the rituals of temple sacrifice.  And they couldn’t keep separate what they considered clean and unclean.  They were thrown into the mixing pot of Babylon and became aliens in exile away from their home.

We’re all aliens in exile.  There is a way in which we are all living in foreign land.  C. S. Lewis says:

If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death.
~ C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

I don’t think Lewis meant to suggest that we weren’t made to live on the earth in these bodies, but rather that something has gone wrong with the intent of God’s creation and until Jesus comes back to restore creation and make all things new, we will always be living in a world that we were not made for, a broken, wounded, sinful, enemy-occupied world.

Or to put it another way, Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon write:

The church is a colony, an island of one culture in the middle of another.  In baptism our citizenship is transferred from one dominion to another, and we become in whatever culture we find ourselves, resident aliens.
~Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon (Resident Aliens)

The original word in Greek for the church is “ecclesia.”  Ecclesia is made up of two parts: Ec = “out” and Kaleo = “to call.”  The church is the community that is called out of the world and country they live in.  Their primary allegiance isn’t to any flag or country, but their primary allegiance is to God’s community, God’s kingdom, the church.  We are then all resident aliens, living in a place we don’t belong.

If you feel like you are an alien lost and away from home, know that we are all aliens in exile.

2.     Work for Peace and Prosperity
So should we neglect or ignore the world in which we find ourselves living?  Absolutely not!  As we continue reading God’s word to Israel in exile through Jeremiah, we hear a clear call to live where we are.

“Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”
~Jeremiah 29:5-7 NLT

It would be easy to give up on the foreign country of Babylon.  It would even be easy to do all you could to undermine the place where you live, especially if they were responsible for sacking your home town and pulling you away from home.  But Jeremiah tells the people to put down roots by building houses.  If you’ve ever built or bought a house you know how it roots you in a place.   Jeremiah tells them to produce the things they need to sustain themselves: gardens, food, produce.  Go on with your dreams and hopes for the next generation.  Marry.  Have children.  And grandchildren!  Don’t whither away but multiply.  Grow.  Add people to the family of God!  Then maybe most shocking of all, Jeremiah tells the people to pray for the wellbeing of the Babylonian Empire.  Pray for your enemies!  Pray for the people who make you feel lost and away from home.  Pray for their welfare and their prosperity.

You know that bully who makes you feel lost at school.  Pray for him.  You know that boss or co-worker who makes your job miserable.  Pray for her to get a raise.  You know that wife who you can’t ever remember why you married her in their first place because all the love and spark is gone from your marriage, pray for her and serve her so that she thrives.

If you find yourself feeling like an alien lost and away from home, work for the peace and prosperity of the place where you find yourself.

3.     Rest in God’s Future Plans
What about the future?  What will it hold?  Will things get better?  Will you ever stop feeling lost and away from home?  Will you ever cease to be an alien?  If we go back to the prophet Jeremiah, we read one of the most well known passages in all of the Bible:

This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen.
~Jeremiah 29:10-12 NLT

Notice that God says “I know.” God knows your future, you don’t.  And notice that God doesn’t just have one place for you but God has many plans.  I think that too often we think of God’s plan our future like a multiple choice question with one right answer.  If we miss the right answer, then we’re out of luck for the rest of our lives.  We’ve blown it all.  But God’s will isn’t like a test with one set of right answers.  I think God’s will is more like a playground surrounded by a fence.  There are lots of right things to do within the playground.  The fence around the playground is the moral law.  The fence is more about how you live and play on the playground.  You do to others as you would have them do to you.  You love your neighbor as you love your self.  You don’t steal, cheat, lie, murder, covet, and the like.  Don’t go outside the fence but inside the fence, God delights in watching you find your own joy.  There are many plans that God has for you in this playground of life, not just one plan.

When you find yourself lost and away from home, rest and relax in God’s plans for you.

4.     You Will Go Home
The last tip Jeremiah has for aliens who find themselves away from home is this: know that you will eventually go home.  Jeremiah says:

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”
~Jeremiah 29:13-14 NLT

You will not be an alien for all eternity.  You will come to your heavenly home.  What image do you have of heaven in your imagination?  Do you think of fat little baby angels sitting on clouds playing harps and singing for all eternity?  If so, then your imagination is probably shaped more by a toilet paper commercial than the Bible.  The primary images of heaven in the Bible are a party, a garden, a new city and community, a place without evil, a mansion with a room for you, a homecoming, and a banquet or feast.

Today we each have the opportunity to get a little taste of heaven as we come to the heavenly feast that is communion.  In communion we get a glimpse of what heaven is like.  A community of friends energized by a shared mission and vision sitting around a table together sharing a feast in the presence of God.  It’s like the old gospel tune, Sweet By and By:

There’s a land that is fairer than day,
And by faith we can see it afar;
For the Father waits over the way
To prepare us a dwelling place there.

In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore;
In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

 

 

Prayer
Make it soon, Lord.  Make it soon.

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Weird Time

August 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

WEiRD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weird Time
Sycamore Creek Church
August 25, 2013
Exodus 16:21-30

Piece friends! 

Today we continue in a series called Weird.  We’re exploring the difference between what is normal in our world and what is weird.  The problem is that normal isn’t working.  So if our lives are going to work, we may need to be a little weird.  That includes the way we use our time.  Normal when it comes to our time is being so busy trying to live “The Life” that we’re missing enjoying our life.  It’s like the classic Ferris Bueller quote: “Yep, I said it before, and I’ll say it again.  Life moves pretty fast.  You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Normal = Busy
Normal = busy.  That’s the badge we wear today.  I struggle with this myself.  I’m somewhat of a workaholic.  Any workaholics among us today?  I can’t sit still waiting the 30 seconds for Micah’s milk to warm up in the microwave.  I have to find something to do with that 30 seconds.  Or the other day I took the train to Chicago.  What I really wanted to do was just sit in my seat and stare out the window taking it all in, but what I did instead was bring my computer and a book so I could be productive with my time.

There’s a joke we have in our family that I get more done in ten minutes with my pinky than Sarah gets done in an entire day with her whole body.  And now we’ve got two kids: a two and a half year old and a seven-week old.  Parenting is work!  These days life seems like an endless cycle of child care, cleaning, and putting things away.  Then repeat.

Craig Groeschel says, “If the Devil can’t make us really bad, then he’ll make us really busy.” We are motivated in our culture by production and efficiency.  These two things drive us, but they have a dark side.  They lead to more buying, more debt, more work, and less time with family, less rest, and less soul.

Then there’s parenting.  While working on this sermon in the library a young mom came in with an infant strapped to her front, a toddler on a leash, and five-ish and six-ish year-old boys all while holding a bag full of library books!  Wow!  That’s some serious work.

MaryAnn McKibben-Dana, the author of the book Sabbath in the Suburbs, says that in the midst of all this we are “looking for a way to cheat time” (Sabbath in the Suburbs).  She adds, “Our calendars are spiritual documents, too. To-do lists and Google Calendars are statements of faith.”  What does your calendar look like?  The other day I tried to have a doctors appointment at 8AM in East Lansing, meet with an incoming college student at 10AM up on Lake Lansing Rd, have a staff meeting at City Limits in Mason, meet with someone getting married back at Biggby in South Lansing, follow that with a meeting with someone new, followed by meeting with a couple getting married, then back home for a quick dinner before meeting someone in Holt who needed help with gas and topping it all off with a leadership team meeting at the end of the day in Holt.  That friends, was eight meetings almost back to back in one day.  I pulled it off, but came home with little energy for my family or myself.  And I know I’m not the only one running a calendar like this.

Moments like this I think of the classic rock song, Cats in the Cradle:

My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin’ ‘fore I knew it, and as he grew
He’d say “I’m gonna be like you, Dad
You know I’m gonna be like you”

Then fast forward in the song…

I’ve long since retired, my son’s moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, “I’d like to see you if you don’t mind”
He said, “I’d love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job’s a hassle and kids have the flu
But it’s sure nice talking to you, Dad
It’s been sure nice talking to you”
And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He’d grown up just like me
My boy was just like me

A.W. Tozer says, “When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.”

Weird = Rest
If busy = normal, then weird = rest.  Many people are busy.  Few people are rested.  So here’s what we want to do today.  We want to explore this basic idea the is the foundation of this series:

If you want what normal people have, do what normal people do.
If you want what few people have, do what few people do.

Normal people have busy.  Few people have rest.  Normal people are over scheduled.  Few people follow God’s plan for rest called Sabbath.

The word “Sabbath” shows up in the Bible 157 times.  It’s a play on the word “seventh” in Hebrew.  Sabbath is a day of rest every seven days.  Let’s look at one place in the Bible where people practice the Sabbath day of rest.  It’s during the time when they are wandering through the wilderness on the way to the promised land, and God provided for them bread from heaven called manna (literally “What is it?”).  Let’s walk through this story in the book of Exodus little by little and see what we can learn about God’s weird plan for the way we use our time:

Exodus 16:21-30
Morning by morning they gathered it, as much as each needed; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.  On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omers apiece.

Notice here that there was some preparation needed for the Sabbath.  You had to plan ahead to make room in your calendar for rest time.  It wasn’t all miraculous.  They had to think intentionally about their time to make Sabbath work.  I think this was especially true if you had kids.  An adult might make it through a day without food, but imagine having six kids all hungry throughout the day!

When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the LORD; bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.'”

The phrase “solemn rest” points to the purpose of Sabbath.  First, Sabbath is solemn.  Sabbath is about God.  It’s about remembering God.  Sabbath is one of  the Ten Commandments: “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it” (Exodus 20:11).  When we rest once every seven days, we remember that God is the creator and rested on the seventh day.

Second, Sabbath is rest.  Sabbath is about God, and Sabbath is about you.  Sabbath is rest for you.  Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27).  Sabbath isn’t about a bunch of rules to follow.  It’s about giving you space to rest and not just work through life but enjoy life.

So they put it aside until morning, as Moses commanded them; and it did not become foul, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field.  Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a sabbath, there will be none.”  

As we continue reading this story of manna we see that there is something miraculous about Sabbath.  Sabbath expands what happens in our life.  Sabbath multiplies, sustains, keeps, and creates.  When you think it’s almost impossible to imagine taking a day off from work, and you do it, you find that you can’t imagine not taking a day off from work.  You work better the other six days of the week.  You are more creative.  You are more rested.  Everything you used to spread out over seven days is easily accomplished in six days.  Sabbath works miracles in our lives!

On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. The LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and instructions?  See! The LORD has given you the sabbath, therefore on the sixth day he gives you food for two days; each of you stay where you are; do not leave your place on the seventh day.” 

But then there are those times when we are tempted to work on the Sabbath.  When we are tempted to neglect our limits and push through.  Practicing Sabbath is hard!  It takes discipline.  And pretty soon we end up having our lives worn out and empty again.  No bread.  No creativity.  No rest.  No time with family.  No time for ourselves.  No God.

So the people rested on the seventh day.

Say it with me, “Ahhhhhh…”  Rest!  That’s what we need in our busy-badge normal culture: a little weird rest.

Blu Greenberg (as quoted in Sabbath in the Suburbs) puts it this way:

Six days shall you be a workaholic;
on the seventh day, shall you join the serene company of human beings.
Six days shall you take orders from your boss;
on the seventh day, shall you be master/mistress of your own life.
Six days shall you toil in the market;
on the seventh day, shall you detach from money matters.
Six days shall you create, drive, create, invent, push;
on the seventh day, shall you reflect.
Six days shall you be the perfect success;
on the seventh day, shall you remember that not everything is in your power.
Six days shall you be a miserable failure;
on the seventh day, shall you be on top of the world.
Six days shall you enjoy the blessings of work;
on the seventh day, shall you understand that being is as important as doing.

Say No To…
To practice Sabbath there are some things you need to say NO to and some things you need to say YES to.

First, say NO to “And.”  Replace “and” with “or.”  I can run errands and pick my kids up and do the bills and watch TV and go to the YMCA and put in an extra two hours of work and have a meaningful conversation with my spouse, or I can run errands or pick my kids up or do the bills or watch TV or go to the YMCA or put in an extra two hours of work or have a meaningful conversation with my spouse.

Second, say NO to your kids.  Yes, you heard me right.  Say NO to your kids.  Say NO to your kids’ activities.  We’re over-programming our kids.  Choose one activity each season and make sure you have a season with no activities.  Say NO to always spending time with your kids, and instead spend time on your marriage.  In her book For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage, Tara Parker-Pope summarizes the current research on marriage and parenting this way:

Studies suggest that parents in happier marriages are more effective parents than stressed-out parents in unhappy relationships…The bottom line of the research into parenting and relationships is this: The best way to take care of your children is to take care of your marriage.

Connect daily with your spouse.  Have a weekly date night where you get away for at least an hour or two.  Spending time on your marriage is the best gift you can give your kids.

Third, say NO to media.  We spend so much of our time watching TV, surfing the internet on our tablets, looking at Facebook on our phones that we’re sucking time away from the relationships that really matter.  Recently a friend of mine who has one college-age child and another high schooler told me that the biggest mistake he made as a parent was having a TV in the house. His kids aren’t fully present to him.  And now that we watch more TV on our tablets and phones, TV shows (can we call them that anymore if we’re not watching them on a TV?) are becoming more and more of an individualistic event rather than a communal one.  Turn off all your screens when talking to someone and be fully present to the people you’re in the same room with.  One family in our church told me about how successful it’s been having a media-free night at their home.  They talk with their kids and read books with them and go on walks.  Give it a try.  Say NO to media so you can say yes to what matters, including rest.

Say Yes To…
That brings us to saying YES!  You know, you say NO to some things only so you can say YES to other more important things.  Say YES to a weekly Sabbath.  Take a step of faith and have a weekly unproductive restful day, even if you don’t think you can “afford” it.  Make it a regular day.  Don’t do any work: work work, home work, whatever, be “unproductive.”  Worship & spend unhurried time with God.  Spend time with friends and family.  MaryAnn McKibben-Dana defined work in this way: “Any activity that changes one’s environment. So Sabbath would be a day of giving up trying to change things.”  That’s an intriguing way of thinking about.  So what if there really is no way to do that week?  Have you tried?  OK, you’ve tried and it didn’t work.  Well, what about bi-weekly, monthly, daily?

Second, practice daily Sabbath.  Taking care of yourself daily.  When I was in grad school I was stressed out more than I had ever been trying to keep up with everything.  I went to see a counselor at the student counseling center.  Her name was Dr Chaudhary.  This was a secular counseling center which makes her non-drug prescription for clinically proven stress & anxiety reduction especially intriguing when compared to what we’re talking about today.  Here are six things that research has shown to reduce anxiety and stress:

  1. Daily Exercise
  2. Plenty of Sleep Each Night
  3. Brief Journaling
  4. Prayer (remember this was a secular counseling center)
  5. Breathing Exercises
  6. A Day Off (Sabbath!)

How are you doing with taking care of yourself by practicing Sabbath daily?

Third, work smart.  Remember, not all of Sabbath is miraculous.  It takes some preparation and advance planning to make room in your calendar for Sabbath.  That means working a little smarter.  Pick up a book about time management and put into practice some of what you read.  I’ve read several.  Here’s the gist of three:

Eat the Frog (Brian Tracy)– Do the most important/essential/hardest thing first.

Four-hour Work Week (Timothy Ferriss) – If I had one hour to work today, what would I do?  Do that first.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Steven Covey) – Schedule time in your calendar for the things that are important but not necessarily urgent.

Rest Begins With…
All of this weird practicing Sabbath stuff begins first with the weird decision to follow Jesus, the weirdest guy who ever lived.  He taught that normal is a really messed up life that regularly and consistently misses what God wants for us.  He showed us in his own way of living what that kind of weird God-life looked like.  And he not only showed it to us but he made it possible for us if we would submit our lives to him and follow him.  That’s where real rest begins.  That’s where real peace begins.  Say NO to your own way and YES to Jesus.

Imagine what a whole community rested might look like.  In the midst of a busy-badge world, there’d be an oasis of peace and rest.   “If you want a normal life, do what normal people do.  If you want to know God intimately, walk with him daily, and please him in every way, you’re going to have to do what few do.  Absolutely nothing” (Craig Groeschel).

Take five minutes and just sit where you’re at and do nothing.  Just sit.  Just breathe.  Just be silent.  Don’t try to change yourself.  Don’t try to change anyone or anything around you.  Just be.  Rest.

“My God, I pray better to You by breathing,
I pray better to You by walking than by talking.”
Thomas Merton, Dialogues with Silence

 

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