A DEVOTIONAL GUIDE FOR
“THE TEN TIMELESS VALUES FOR DISCIPLESHIP
“THE TEN TIMELESS VALUES FOR DISCIPLESHIP
Week 2
Discipline: Sabbath
Word: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”
Mark 6:30-31
“The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ’Come away to a deserted place all by your selves and rest for a while.’ For many were coming and going and they had no leisure event to eat.”
Reflection: RHYTHM
There is a reason we often refer to ourselves as “creatures of habit”. We are part of God’s creation and into all of the creation God designed a rhythm. Look no further than nature and the changing of the seasons. In it we see a rhythm of birth, growth, decline, death, rebirth. In the design of Sabbath, God even called for a rhythm of how to use the land for certain number of years, but then to allow it to lay fallow (rest). This is why we don’t like our schedules interrupted, we do best when we live, work, rest, play, with a kind of rhythm to our lives. Habit is a kind of rhythm and Sabbath is a Holy Habit and keeps our lives in rhythm. It creates a balance between the sacred and secular, work and rest. Often when that Sabbath habit is interrupted we not only feel tired from a lack of rest, but we also feel out of sync or step, something is missing.
There is a reason that Jesus seemed to maintain a sense of peace in his life while there was so much chaos and anxiety around him. He maintained his sense of balance or rhythm in his life by the regular practice of Sabbath time in his daily and weekly life. We live in a world that no longer has a rhythm, but rather is constant noise and activity. We have stores that never close, televisions that never go off, cell phones with email and text that go off in the middle of the night from various vendors. We wonder why we are increasingly dependent on medications for acid reflux, anxiety, and insomnia and yet ignore the timeless prescription of Sabbath to bring balance and peace in the midst of our chaotic lives. We cannot escape how we are made, and until we rediscover the sacred Sabbath rhythm built into our nature we will never have real peace.
Practice: Set aside an evening and day this week to prepare and enjoy a meal with family and/or friends. Take a walk, not for exercise, but just to leisurely walk and reflect on nature around us and its rhythm.
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