I didn’t expect to hear the words, “I need rest,” to come from the pulpit yesterday morning. Turns out our assistant rector was leaving on a three month sabbatical and this would be her last sermon for a while. Everyone in the church was supportive; she had been filling in when the Rector became a Bishop for over a year, plus she had just had a baby, is the mother of three boys, the list goes on and on. In fact I wonder how much she can get any rest during the next three months. Activity tends to flow whereever there is a void.
Her sincere words got me to thinking how little rest we all get these days. News operates on a twenty-four hour cycle, Saturdays and Sundays for my children are filled with soccer, basketball, yard work, and usually work that didn’t get done during the week. More and more families have two wage earners just to make ends meet, so weekends are catch up time, not time for rest.
God took the seventh day off, and commanded we keep the Sabbath holy. God recognized that the human condition needs rest. I wonder what he thinks of our busy schedules.
We need the sabbath, we need rest, we need time to be alone. In the words of Herman Hesse, “Solitude is not chosen, any more than destiny is chosen. Solitude comes to us if we have within us the magic stone that attracts destiny.” We need rest, silence, peace, and time alone to think and commune with God about the next days, months, and years of our lives. Don’t neglect your future for the demands of the present.
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