Sabbath Rest

Six years ago I marked the week of April 7th - April 14th "The Lord's Week" on my calendar. It happened at a time when I really needed to set aside a whole week for the LORD, so I marked it on my calendar and have observed it ever since. The fact that it is written on my calendar helps me a lot because it reminds me, every April, how important Sabbath rest is. I remember in college, my professor, Rick Rhoads, would always talk about the principle of Sabbath rest and about how important it is for our lives. In fact he would often send us away from class saying, "Be still for an entire hour before God. That is your assignment for the day." or he would have us set aside 12 hours to do a prayer retreat, for a project. This principle changed my life.

Now, more than ever, I need Sabbath rests, because to be honest it should be something more than what we observe once a week. Our culture has become so task driven and fast paced that if we do not take time out of our day to be before God we may never become the people God desires us to be. If we were to limit our Sabbath to only Sunday - where we intentionally are near God for a couple hours and then go home to watch football - we will miss a lot in our lives. Our lives will become a blur rather than many significant events.

I don't know about you, but I want my life to be significant. I want to be used by God to make a profound difference in the lives of others, and to see his Kingdom grow on earth. As I desired this the most in my life, however, I realized that only way that I can make that difference is if I continually make a difference in my own life. The less I'm willing to look inwardly at my own life, the less I will be able to look into the lives of others, for it is when we look deep into ourselves that we realize what it means to be human, and what it means to relate to those around us. The more I look at the person God has made me into the more I see who I really am, and the more I see my true identity the more I really see others.

Sabbath is a time when we can evaluate ourselves, and a time when we can intentionally be in the presence of God. It is a time when we can really get to know, not only our Creator, but also, ourselves, and those around us. It is a time when the world is stripped of all its complexity and we see things for what they really are: reflections of the Divine trying to find their way back to Him.