By Rodney Marsh —
There is much modern recognition that, for our mental health if nothing else, we need rest from work. However, there is little modern guidance on how to ‘rest’ beyond saying that we must stop work. In my life, learning the discipline two thirty minutes of still silence has taught me that ‘rest’ is the most vital work I can do. The work of stillness and silence is, in fact, the fount of all my external work.
So, in my workplace (a school) I wrote this piece to encourage students, staff and families to have a real rest (which isn’t a trip to Bali or more golf rounds) during the two week break from school. Here’s why our modern world needs to turn holiday back into holy-days.
How to Make the Holidays Holy Days
“…God…. rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So, God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” — Genesis 2:2,3
God doesn’t get tired, so why did God rest on the seventh day of creation? Because, though God had completed his work in six days, God had not yet inserted into time and space, space and time for rest. God had finished creating but God had not finished work, yet.
The time and space of creation needed space and time to ‘be’. God needed to simply ‘be’ not ‘do’ in order to enjoy what had been made and in order for creation to be truly complete. The creation story shows that rest/recreation/enjoyment is part of God’s nature and so, being made in God’s image, stopping work and taking up the work of rest (being), is essential to human nature. The ‘rest’ of God is simple enjoyment and celebration of being/reality and we can do it too.
This story of scripture shows us that rest and recreation are not optional extras in life, rather, they are essential aspect of life. These periods of time off ‘work’ we call holidays, because they were originally given as ‘holy’ days (God blessed the seventh day and made it holy) dedicated to rest-oration, re-creation. Rest is, in this way, a holy activity.
After each of the days of creation, God sees what has been made and labels it good. All people and creation are held in God’s being and this makes all that is, good. Rest is ‘holy’ because it is the simple enjoyment of the goodness of our being and sharing that being with others. Each of us holds a valued place in all that is, but we need to stop all our doing in order to find that valued place. Rest becomes holy when we make time and space in our lives to experience the goodness of all that is. Smell the roses. Smile. Enjoy life. ‘Be’ with your family. ‘Be’ with your Jesus’ family.
Rest also creates meaning and purpose in our lives. Our lives only have meaning if we stop doing/making/working, and learn to rest. Work alone cannot create meaning for us because we are not our achievements or our possessions, nor are we others’ opinions of us. If we take time to be instead of do, we discover that meaning emerges in our life, is meaning’s fruit: peace, hope and joy.
Being purposeful about resting in the goodness of all things, is what holy-days (holidays) are for. My advice for these holy-days: identify what feeds your soul, your wellbeing, and set aside time to feed your soul. Make music. Find some jumping whales to watch. Walk our beautiful coastline. Go for a run. Play games (not computer games, but board games etc). Exercise. Play sport. Praise God with others etc.
Another hint: Do not waste time pursuing pleasure or entertainment in the digital world, for these things stimulate our imaginations and imaginary achievements but, in general, do not restore or recreate our spirit and you cannot ‘be’ with others if you are looking at a screen.
A Prayer
Holy, good God,
In these holy-days,
Give us rest from our doing.
Grant us sweet rest from demands.
Fill our being with peace.
Re-create our soul.
Re-store our spirit.
Send dew drops of joy onto all we do.
In these holy-days,
We give the gift of our presence,
To those we love,
And to You,
Holy, good God.
Amen.
by Christine Sine
This week we will be harvesting fruit at the Mustard Seed House – apples and pears and plums are all ready to be picked and we are all ready to enjoy their sweet flavors. I must confess that this was where my attention drifted as Cherry Hairston gave her sermon yesterday and I recognized that this forms a good basis for meditation at this time of the year.
Cherry began with a quote from Julian of Norwich.
God made it, God loves it, God preserves it.
then handed out a hazelnut to each of us, encouraging us to look closely at it.
What do you see? she asked – a small brown nut, flat at one end and slightly pointed at the other. She then pointed out that what we see is only the surface. When we shake the nut you hear something rattling within. The x-ray eyes of faith enable us to see through the surface to the life within. she commented.
And that was what sent my imagination zooming. I didn’t have any hazelnuts but our harvesting the week, I realized would form a good basis for meditation. What if instead of a hazelnut I consider an apple, or a pear or a plum, or in fact any fruit? And it doesn’t even need to be straight of the tree.
So I thought you would like to join me.
So below I will share the process I went through and the responses that I had as I meditated on the fruit in my hand
Find a piece of Fruit or a nut. Hold it in your hand. What do you see, and feel?
For me it was the apples straight from the tree that grabbed my attention. I reached initially for the biggest and best one I could find, but then a smaller misshapen apple caught my attention. Green, with a blush of pink it sat comfortably in my hand. Wholesome, not perfectly shaped but appealing no less, with its promise of delightful flavors and sweet nourishment. I was tempted to immediately sink my teeth into it.
I rubbed it between my fingers. Most of it was smooth, with a few rough patches that made me wonder what lay beneath.
Shake your fruit. What do you hear?
Unlike a nut, a piece my apple makes no sound. There is nothing that gives me a sense of what lies beneath the surface. Is the fruit juicy and sweet? Is the flesh healthy? Is the centre filled with seeds with the hope of new life?
Cut into your fruit and take your first bite. What do you see, and smell, and taste?
My fruit may not look perfect but the flesh is sweet and delicious. A few brown spots mar its appearance, but those are easy to cut out. The juice runs down my arm. But in the centre as I suspected there is a small worm, just emerging and beginning to grow. Its egg invaded the fruit when it was small and defensively and has been waiting until the fruit is mature to emerge. The fruit needs to be eaten or processed quickly so that the flesh is not destroyed.
What can this piece of fruit teach you about yourself, about God and about God’s creation?
As I held this piece of fruit in my hand a lot of thoughts went through my mind.
In so many ways my life is like an apple. So often I want to look perfect on the outside, big and imposing for those around me to see. Yet I know that hiding beneath the surface there can be blemishes and maybe even a canker worm that if allowed to grow can destroy the fruit that God has prepared within me. And the only way to get rid of the disease is to cut it out, a painful process that I reluctantly put off as long as possible. Yet just as the worm will grow and destroy the beautiful flesh of the apple the longer I wait, so will my blemishes destroy the fruit God has created within my life the longer I wait.
What I also realize is that the fruit God has created within me is not for my own use but is created to be shared to nourish others. If I had tried to hold it to myself it would have destroyed all the fruit.
I suspect that there are other lessons that God will prompt me with as I continue to reflect on this.
Let me know what comes to you as you meditate on a piece of fruit or a nut too.
By Lilly Lewin
I am on the road in Denver,Colorado this week, helping our youngest son move and get ready for law school. It’s hard to believe that here in the States we are already thinking BACK TO SCHOOL, when my friends in the UK are just getting into the summer holidays and all the fun of festivals and celebration. Even if we don’t have kids in school, we are all in the season of transition. How do we get rhythm back? How can we start well or begin again to connect with God even if our schedules are getting busy? Or if you are beginning your holidays, how do you make sure you are actually rested when you start up again? As most of you know, I believe in praying along the way, and I love using every day things I see to help me connect with God and encourage me to pray.
I often get inspired for my prayer experiences and prayer station ideas by going to the dollar store and places like Target. Jesus used the things he saw everyday, and things his followers saw every day, to teach lasting visual and symbolic lessons. So why can’t we use things we see everyday to remind us to pray? I believe we can too!
Since it is BACK TO SCHOOL season in my neck of the woods, I’d love to share again a prayer idea involving Subtraction and Addition Flash Cards. You know, the kind that teaches students math facts like 2+2=4 or 6-3=3. You can use these at your dinner table with your family, with a small group, a youth group, Sunday School class, or even by yourself.
You just need to buy a pack of subtraction and addition flash cards at the dollar store or Target, and each person needs a sharpie marker or other pen to use to write on their card.
Everyone gets two cards, one subtraction and one addition.
Have each person (you too) hold a subtraction card in their hand.
Ask your group members or family members to think about their lives right now, think about their calendars, their day, month etc.
What things might they need to subtract from their lives that might be getting in the way of peace, joy, creativity? Things which add stress or cause frustration or even sleepless nights, or things that are robbing them of relationships. You can modify this question according to the ages of your group. Give them space to think about this. And you can even give a couple of examples, like subtracting arguing or complaining or subtracting screen time when you could be having a conversation or be doing homework. Then ask them “What things do you need to subtract from your life that might be getting in the way of your relationship with God?” Give them time to talk to God about this. Have them write down on the subtraction card, the things that they want to subtract in order to have more space in their lives and more time with God. If you are doing this with your small group or youth group, have them take home their subtraction cards as a tangible visual aid to remind them of what they need to subtract in order to have a better relationship with God in the days ahead.
At the end of the month, or the semester you might get the cards out again and have everyone reflect on how their subtraction process has gone. Personally I am in need of subtracting time on my phone checking email and instagram right before bed!
You can use the ADDITION CARDS to consider what things you’d like to ADD into your life that would help you connect better with Jesus. Doing the same process of writing these down and giving them to Jesus. You can even share cards with someone else and have that partner pray for you for the things you need to add or the things you need to subtract!
This prayer idea is found in the BACK2SCHOOL PRAY EXPERIENCE KIT if you’d like more ideas of how to pray with School Supplies. It’s a great kick off for youth group, Sunday School or even your entire Church community. You can check out other prayer ideas and even download an entire prayer experience using school supplies at freerangeworship.com. I also have a great prayer experience using the tables where Jesus sat called “AT THE TABLE WITH JESUS” that is a great resource for prayer stations if you want to think ahead towards Thanksgiving. Both of these kits include prayer stations that can be done all together as in a sacred space prayer room or they can be used individually after a weekly teaching or sermon. 
Take time this weekend to SUBTRACT something that is keeping you from Jesus
Take time this weekend to SUBTRACT something that is keeping you from relationships with others.
Take time to ADD something that truly brings you JOY!
Take time to ADD something that brings you closer to God and helps you bring hope to others who need it.
Blessings to all teachers as you prepare for the new year ahead! Thank you for what you do each day to bring learning and love to children and adults of all ages! I’m going to ADD praying for all my teacher friends on a more regular basis!
by Keren Dibbens-Wyatt —
Much of the Christian walk is about learning to see with new eyes. After many years of prayer, the Lord impressed upon me a new way of looking at myself, too, as a mystic. I had been receiving what dear Julian of Norwich might call, “shewings,” words and pictures, understandings, even stories and the occasional vision or locution from my time spent with him and in contemplative prayer. This caused me some angst. I wanted guidance, so I asked lots of fellow believers about it, vicars and pastors and those in pastoral care or prayer ministry, but nobody seemed to know what I was talking about.
It was not until I read Teresa of Avila’s life story that I found a kindred spirit and realised that in a much smaller way, I was becoming a mystic too. That new perspective and new word was deeply liberating and affirming. It helped me go from thinking I was going a bit strange to being sure I was! But strange in the world’s eyes, not in God’s.
One lazy summer’s day a few years back I found a dozy toad on our garden path. We have a cat, so I decided it would be best to move him or her to some safer undergrowth. Picking it up gently, I was so struck by its beauty and so moved to be holding one of God’s creatures in my hand that I kissed it. Perhaps with a holy perspective gifted to us we can learn to love the dozy, knobbly, less conventionally lovely parts of ourselves and others. Maybe that is the “warts and all” unconditional love of God.
Nowadays I savour all I am given in prayer and trust the Giver implicitly. He has gifted me with a number of new ways to look at myself over the years, and now instead of labelling myself only as sick, unemployable, and functionally disabled, I can also call myself a writer, an artist, a contemplative, a Christian mystic and I think I am also becoming a Franciscan. God sees so much more than our outer shell, and what the world deems “useful,” and is always leading us into seeing through new lenses.
Being a Christ follower means plucking out so much of our own sight that we begin to see with God’s eyes. And like everyone else travelling that narrow path, it means shovelling out ego as fast as we can lift it, and watching the embers of our old self die out over and over again until we are licked to life in Christ by the holy flame of Grace.
Always when you think you are arriving you are shown a new level of seeing and have to begin again. Faith is a fascinating journey of cleaning the lens of perspective over and over. Sometimes it takes us to unexpected places, as this piece just received in prayer may help us see…..
I sit at the bottom of the well, with God.
We crouch in the gloopy mud like old toads. This friendship finds the strangest places to dwell. Few will find us here, and when they do, they will look down on us, shake their heads and walk away. We are free to speak and ponder, to love and laugh, to gaze at the sky.
If anyone speaks to us, they address only me and say, “Why would you choose to be a toad?” and I say,
“Because it is not below God to live as a toad, no more is it beneath me.” Or they say,
“Why would you choose to sit in mud at the bottom of a well?” and I croak back,
“Because this is where I found God sitting.”
“How did you even end up like this?” they counter in disgust.
“I found him, I climbed down, and he kissed me, so that I too could be a toad and understand toadish things.” And like the others, they shake their heads and knit their brows and walk away.
God and I smile at one another.
“Ribbit,” says God, and nods.
By Lynne M. Baab —
Perhaps you’re like me, and you read Old Testament passages about idols and idolatry from a great distance. I simply can’t relate to someone carving a little object or creating a big, tall statue and then worshipping it.
The forms of idolatry that I have to deal with come from a culture that emphasizes material possessions and action, and a family of origin that emphasized competence and one right way of doing everything.
I remember my father expounding on political issues, describing what politicians should be doing. I remember my mother talking about acquaintances, describing what they should do to solve their problems. Everything had a clear-cut answer, and my parents knew that answer. To their credit, they were hardworking, self-disciplined people who made a good life for our family.
The influence of my parents, coupled with the materialism and emphasis on action in the wider culture, created a stew of warped priorities deep inside me. I tend to feel hyper-responsible, as if the world can’t go on without my effort and as if everything in my life depends on my hard work. This idolatry turns me into a sort of mini-God, my wisdom and action essential to the functioning of daily life for myself, my family, and other people in my life.
The Sabbath, more than anything else, has taught me that God is God and I am not. In the six work days of the week, we are called to partner with God in caring for the creation and the people who live in it. My sense of hyper-responsibility isn’t totally inappropriate on the six days, because I am a hard worker like my parents taught me to be.
But on the Sabbath, I am called to stop all that responsible activity. I am called to rest in the arms of the One who really does run the universe. I’m called to enjoy the abundance of a Creator who made the world extravagantly, so abundantly provisioned that I can let go of all my efforts for one day each week and experience being completely superfluous to keeping life going.
If I worked hard seven days a week, that work would damage me profoundly because it would nurture the belief that everything depends on me, and that I have – or should have – the wisdom and energy to run my own life. My hard work, six days a week, mostly results in good things because the one day of rest each week provides balance.
As I’ve written in my two previous posts on the Sabbath, a day of rest provides the opportunity to read our lives differently. We are freed from slavery. We can enjoy enjoy being a creature intricately designed by a loving God. The Sabbath invites us to view ourselves differently than our culture teaches. In my case, the Sabbath invites me to view myself differently than what my parents modeled for me.
The Sabbath inscribes deep truths in our hearts in an experiential, non-cognitive, transformative way. As I described in my first post about the Sabbath, it took me about six months of an enforced Sabbath, when living in Israel, to begin to enjoy it. Your first Sabbath day might not feel very significant. But your tenth or twentieth might!
In our fast paced culture, deciding how to begin a Sabbath, or now to enrich a Sabbath you are already practicing, is challenging. Here are some resources I’ve written:
-
- Articles on my website
- My book, Sabbath Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest
- My Bible study guide: Sabbath: the Gift of Rest
By Lynne M. Baab —
Illustration by Dave Baab
I watched my granddaughter’s face as she described the bunnies at her preschool. I could see softness and joy when she said, “They’re so soft.” The tone of her voice was tender.
I hear some of that same joy when my husband Dave, a fly-fisherman, describes trout and steelhead. He talks about their glittering scales and the beauty of their movement.
I’ve never had any affection for trout! But birds make my heart sing. We had the privilege of seeing albatrosses many times while we lived in Dunedin, New Zealand. They soar with their ten foot wing spans, and something in me soars along with them.
The same Creator who made bunnies, trout and albatrosses made you and me. We are, in fact, creatures of a loving God. The Sabbath has taught me this more than any other spiritual practice.
In the Genesis story, Adam and Eve’s first full day on earth was the Sabbath day (Genesis 1:26-2:3). God rested on the Sabbath, and invited all of creation to rest as well, because the earth was so abundantly provisioned that God could rest from labor for a day.
We often think we can take a Sabbath because we have worked hard all week. We think we deserve rest. In the creation story, relaxation and abundance come first. We rest because we are creatures of a God who created abundance. The delight of a rabbit’s fur, the shimmering silver scales on a steelhead, the majestic soar of an albatross . . . all of these are signs of God’s creativity. God didn’t have to make creatures beautiful, but the beauty of creation reflects the beauty of the Creator God, a message of joy, peace and wonder to us.
I wrote last Tuesday about Dave’s and my time in Israel, how we were forced to observe a Sabbath simply because everything was closed one day a week. We grew to love it, and we brought that Sabbath practice back to Seattle with us. Now, four decades later, I can see so clearly that the Sabbath, more than anything else, has inscribed in my heart that I am God’s beloved creature.
I conducted dozens of interviews for my book Sabbath Keeping. I found that the single most common Sabbath practice among my interviewees was getting out in nature. They talked about walking through their neighborhood, hiking in the mountains, throwing a Frisbee for their dog on a beach, biking, skiing, sailing, swimming, gardening . . . or simply sitting in a garden.
Being in creation reminds us of the One who created all that beauty. We experience the joy of God’s creativity and beauty. We rediscover awe. We remember the source of everything good and lovely.
In addition, we remember that we, too, were created by God. We are creatures of a loving God. We, in fact, are finite creatures, dependent on Someone Else for every breath we take and for every beat of our hearts.
On the other six days of the week, we are called to join with God in taking care of the world and the people in it. On one day each week, the Sabbath day, we are invited into the kind of rest that reminds us that a part of being God’s beloved children is remembering that we are creatures of a creative God. This God made us intricately and beautifully and wants us to consider the lilies (Luke 12:27) and trust in God’s provision for everything, just like the lilies, bunnies, trout and albatrosses depend on God.
If you long to grow in your awareness of yourself as a creature in the arms of a loving God, here are some resources I’ve written about the Sabbath:
-
- Articles on my website
- My book, Sabbath Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest
- My Bible study guide: Sabbath: the Gift of Rest
By Lynne M. Baab —
Illustration by Dave Baab
I can’t imagine there’s an English speaking person on the face of the earth who hasn’t heard the comparison of “human being” versus “human doing.”
These words are often used in discussions about the fast pace of life, leisure activities that are restorative, and various spiritual practices such as contemplative prayer and journaling. The Sabbath is the spiritual practice that taught me the most about these words.
My husband, Dave, and I lived for 18 months in Israel as young adults. In fact, exactly forty years ago this month, we had been in Israel about six months. I was studying Hebrew full time and pregnant with our older son, and Dave was teaching in the dental school at Tel Aviv University. We’d had six months of a Jewish Sabbath every week, and we were starting to relax into the pattern of a day with absolutely nothing to do.
In our Jewish neighborhood, everything was closed, from mini-marts to supermarkets, from movie theaters to restaurants. We didn’t have a car, and the busses didn’t run. In our early months in Israel we chafed at the sense of boredom, but by mid-year we were actually enjoying a day of reading, leisurely letter writing (no email in those days), bird-watching in the nearly field (for Dave), leisurely cooking (for me), and long, leisurely conversations.
The observant reader will note the use of “leisurely” three times in the previous sentence, and that’s the key word for our Sabbaths in Israel and our Sabbaths today. It really did take at least six months to begin to enjoy doing things slowly, in an open-ended fashion with a relaxed spirit.
In one of the versions of the Ten Commandments in the Hebrew Scriptures, freedom from slavery is given as the reason why the people of Israel should observe a Sabbath:
“Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.” (Deut 5:12-15)
God freed the Israelites from slavery to the Egyptians, and after the death and resurrection of Jesus we know that God freed all people from slavery to sin, death and the devil. The Sabbath day is a day to live free lives, celebrating that we are no longer enslaved. When we live one day a week that way, month after month and year after year, something profound is inscribed on our hearts. We change the way we perceive ourselves. We see ourselves differently.
“Leisurely” is a word that reflects the kind of freedom needed today, in our unbelievably busy lives. I can’t achieve “leisurely” seven days a week, and I don’t believe God calls me to try to do that. But I have learned to lean into leisure one day each week, and it truly has changed my perception of myself. Truly I am a human being, not a human doing. I don’t have to prove anything to anyone by my accomplishments. I see myself differently (at least some of the time!) because I keep a Sabbath.
I do not have to live as if I am enslaved to a frantic schedule. I do not have to live as if I am enslaved to other people’s opinions. I am a freed human being.
Figuring out how to keep a Sabbath – what to do and what not to do – is challenging. Some resources I’ve written:
-
- Articles on my website
- My book, Sabbath Keeping: Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest
- My Bible study guide: Sabbath: the Gift of Rest
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