When you need a hard reset…

This week I had the joy of curling up on the couch across from a dear friend, steaming cups of tea in hands, and a sweet squishy baby between us. It’d been a long time, and it was pure joy to hear her story. In person. Face to face. It’s so much better than liking a picture or even reading a post. The sharing of our lives and stories, in person, renews my soul like nothing else. God is such a creative, relentless pursuer of hearts. He’s always on the move. Everything He touches is changed. He makes all things new.

One of the things we talked about, as it related to both of our lives, was the supernatural power of Sabbath. We have both observed a prescribed, prolonged period of rest from previous ways of life, and the result has been healing, wholeness, peace, renewal, vision, focus.

In a word, Revival. 

I was so grateful to take 2018 completely off from speaking. I also stepped away from writing, and my other formal leadership roles. I had the joy of just simply being.

Of course, God knew the timing would be perfect. This year brought relational demands that would require my whole heart, mind, and attention. I was so grateful to have the bandwidth to devote my heart to those I love so deeply. This year also brought a baby…a pretty big time commitment. 🙂 It also happened to be the start of the seventh year of our Renew Church adventure, so the timing seemed significant.

Over the years, I’ve reflected on the idea of Sabbath in various ways. It remains interesting to me that this is the one commandment we seem to completely disregard. In the famous Isaiah 58 passage, we constantly quote the part of about loosing the chains of injustice, but never follow the passage all the way to the equally strong exhortation regarding honoring of the Sabbath. 

In the New Testament, Jesus rebukes people because they had completely missed the point of Sabbath. Similarly, I’ve often heard that Sabbath is simply “doing whatever makes you happy or brings you joy” and yet God clearly says that honoring it is “not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words.” It feels offensive to us that even our “day off” must come under the authority of and direction of One greater than us.

God wants our work days and our rest days to be consecrated to Him completely. Why? And here is where, I believe, the disconnect comes:

Because God actually knows what is best for us. 

The very end of Isaiah 58, after the strong exhortations about justice and Sabbath, this is the promise:

then you will find your joy in the Lord,
and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Yes, God wants us to have JOY, but He knows that if we pursue it directly we won’t find it. Only as we seek first the kingdom will “all these things” be added. 

Do you want joy? Work tirelessly for others. Speak up on behalf of the voiceless. Feed the hungry, house the homeless. Refuse to point the finger or speak maliciously. And, in humble submission to the good plans of the Good Good Father … Rest. 

I recently had to get a new (hand-me-down) phone, as my old one quit. It took awhile to power down, transfer over, and start up in the new phone. It was a hard reset.

The Sabbath is the hard reset. It is not just a nap, or a glass or wine or a game of golf or sleeping in once in a while. It isn’t merely a natural thing. Sabbath is a supernatural secret, a choosing to come into agreement with an authority above you, and recognize that He knows how best to live.

For Israel, every 7th year was the Sabbath year. Even the ground got a break. No tilling, planting, harvesting.

A hard reset.

And the result: More fruitfulness. More harvest. Renewal. Even the land needs revival. 

Now, as 2018 comes to a close (I actually reached my “1-year off” mark last weekend), I’m slowly reintroducing items into life. Some things, like useless apps on my old phone, are gone for good. A few new habits have found their way into my day (learning guitar!), and more than anything I want to continue to give the lionshare of my time and attention to relationships right in front of me. My man, kids, our parents, church family. Our widowed neighbors.

Face to face. Shoulder to shoulder. Looking in the whites of each other’s eyes.

So, nothing earth-shattering here, but it’s been so long since I’ve said hello in this space, I wanted to give a quick update, and explain that I’ll be in and out occasionally in this coming year. One goal is to revisit the archives more often and share some sweet nuggets from years past. For now, Merry Christmas. Hug your people. Have your next political discussion in person, not online. Smile. Pray. Go to bed by 9pm. Sip tea. Read your Bible. Go for a walk. Skip the extra cookie. Hold a squishy baby. Visit someone who’s lonely.

Sit on the couch, sip tea, join hands, and pray with a friend. 

Joy to the world.