“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work.. (Exodus 20:8,9)

“Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you.” (Deuteronomy 5:12)

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11: 28)

I’ve been running like the proverbial chicken all week.  Well, running as fast as my ‘6 months out of total knee replacement surgery’ will let me.  So I guess I’m ‘lurching and limping’ like the proverbial chicken all week. Mostly I like being busy.  When I’m busy I feel useful and important.  Feeling useful and important is really nice and so busy-ness is pretty rewarding for me.  That is until something tips the pace of my life into ‘overwhelmed’.  This week it was Hugh getting sick.  Just a summer virus – but sick enough that he was working from home all week and wasn’t able to handle his normal ‘home’ activities.  He’s a grown up and can look after himself but really couldn’t leave the house to run any of his errands and stuff like that.  So, I had to pick up the stray things that Hugh normally does.

And then yesterday I started feeling a little bit under the weather myself.  Not hugely; and not normally something that would stop me in my tracks.  But because I already had my ‘regular’ busy-ness, the stray chores leftover in our household and a couple of unexpected activities at the church, by the time I got home last night I realized that I had completely tipped into “this is too much” and I. Just. Can’t. Do. One. More. Thing.

I have heard it said that over-work is the only socially sanctioned addiction.  I know that I find it kind of sneaking into my life, right!  I LIKE being busy.  I LIKE what busy-ness brings me – all of the feelings of importance and all of that.  I also like being regarded as a busy person because – well – it makes me look important, right!  (O.K. – do you see how the cycle is starting to turn here?  I am busy because being busy brings me good feelings.  I like my good feelings so I get busier, which means that people give me all that good ‘stuff’ of approval etc.  And around and around it goes).  I don’t think that I’m alone in this.  I have heard many of you talk about your weekly schedules and frankly, you’re busier than I am.  With all sorts of really good reasons.  But it also means that you express loss and grief when you can’t continue with your schedule because it has tipped you into a place of being overwhelmed.

And I wonder if the issue is not necessarily our busy-ness, but that we aren’t leaving enough margin in our lives to manage the times of illness, or surprise responsibilities.  The margins – the edges of our worlds where we just sit; where we don’t even think or plan; where we don’t even ‘do’ things that we call ‘recreation’.  The margins in our life where we are just content to ‘be’ rather than ‘do’.

Because that’s radically counter-cultural, right.  We believe that we are meant to be ‘doing’.  That we should have ‘plans’ and ‘activities’ and that we are ‘productive’ and ‘useful’ to society.  Leisure time is spent ‘doing’ instead of ‘being’.  Even our children are ‘programmed’ with activities and events that are meant to ‘give them a leg up’ in our society.  Truthfully – I am o.k. with life enhancement and being ‘the best you can be’.

But at the same time, I wonder if this is truly honoring God’s good and perfect creation in us.

And I also wonder if that’s why God’s commandments in Scripture also include ‘honoring the Sabbath and keeping it holy’.  Because to truly just ‘be’ God’s good creation, we need to stop ‘doing’.  To truly manage our lives as disciples means that we honor ourselves exactly as we are created, not as our potential as people.

So, this week my dear Bethel friends – come take a Sabbath with me.  Lets honor each other for who we are, rather than what we do, and allow God to give us Rest.

Blessings today and remember you are Loved (for who you are, not what you do).

~Rev. Lynne