By Lilly Lewin
This week at thinplaceNASHVILLE, our Sunday night community, we are looking at Sabbath as resistance to anxiety. As a high anxiety person, this is powerful to me! What if Sabbath REST, and actually having margin, is a gift that can help us all be less fearful? Less anxious, more trusting? That is powerful! What if God provided us with the Gift of Sabbath in order to set us free from the anxiety and stress of the daily grind? Would we think about practicing Sabbath, and actually consider resting if we believed it would help us be less anxious?
- What things make you anxious & cause you to worry? To fret? To toil & spin? Rather than rest & trust?
- What things are keeping you up at night? What things are driving you crazy and making you anxious? Actually take the time to make the list!
- How can you see Sabbath as gift that brings peace to your life instead of anxiety? What could that look like in your life?
- What would you like to do to put a little Sabbath rest into your life this week? What you like to do, or not do, in order to have some Sabbath time? Make a plan!
In Matthew 6, Jesus invites us to consider the lilies, the wild flowers. They don’t work or worry , yet God dresses them in glory finer than King Solomon’s! If God cares for the little flowers in the field, consider how much more God cares for you! Today, take some time to consider the Lilies! Actually look at the photos of the flowers, or better yet, go buy a lily or two and spend some time gazing at them. Enjoy their beauty. Consider how God has taken the time to bring beauty into our world and takes care of things as small as flowers!
Take time to pause, to breathe, to have a moment of sabbath rest in your day! And let God hold your anxiety like God holds the flowers!
Read Sabbath as Resistance by Walter Brueggemann