Rest

I’ve dialed back on my running mileage this winter. The change has been welcomed by both my body and my mind. I’ve discovered that marathon training, while invigorating and challenging, takes its toll on me in many ways. I need the space and the time to be freed from regimen of training schedules, tempo runs, speed work, fartleks, and lots and lots of miles. Over the winter months I listen to my body and run with no agenda; other than to enjoy myself. This morning the thermometer was in the single digits and the wind was blowing. I felt no guilt turning off the alarm and pulling the blankets tighter. Rest has incredible healing powers.

In the Scriptures, God gives the gift of the Sabbath so that we and all creation might be renewed. Weekly rest provides God’s people a needed break from daily work. Sabbath observance is the most important ritual observance in Judaism.  It is not viewed as an obligation or a burden to be observed, but is instead treasured as the gift that it is. 

One of the problems with which we struggle in this time-crunched culture of ours is that worship or Sabbath observance becomes just another obligation in an already busy schedule. Unfortunately it’s an obligation that is most easily jettisoned for the sake of getting other things done. Rest is not valued in our multi-tasking, ladder-climbing, over-achieving culture.

But what if we came to the realization that our worship life is not something that we have to do, but rather is something that we get to do? And not only that, but Sabbath observance is ultimately about what God wants to do for us, through us and in us.

At Holy Cross, we’ve identified Worship as one of the four Vital Signs of a missional faith in part because God’s people need space and time to rest, de-frag, and encounter the God who wants to meet us with words of forgiveness and life. The space and time afforded by weekly worship grants us a unique opportunity to be healed, restored and renewed for life.