It’s a “Beautiful” Day

It’s finals week.  I have a HUGE paper due in 22.5 hours.  Two tests are scheduled for Wednesday (one was actually moved from Friday… still working that one out with the professor).  I studied at a friend’s house last night and slept over.  I arrived at home in dire need of a shower and some dental hygiene, only to discover that I did not have my keys and that my roommate was not home.  Of course my phone is dead because I didn’t bring my charger to my friend’s house last night (which means that it was behind the locked door), so I couldn’t call anyone and that also meant that I didn’t have the number for Central Campus Lockout.

The bus was coming… I had a quick decision to make?  Do I sprint to it and go ahead and take care of my time-sensitive errands before my lunch meeting?  Or do I let it go, go to the Central Campus Office, and pick up a spare key?  I sprinted to the bus.  Probably a bad decision because of my fear of stank-breath (although Greg tested and cleared me), my un-showered body, and my general unappealing appearance, but I really wanted to get these things out of the way before it was too late.  Besides, by the time I got back, my roommate should be home and I wont have to deal with the key pick-up and drop-off (which I ended up being wrong about).  To top it all off, while doing my errands, I realized that I had made a typo in a gift that I had already sent… oh well.  Thought still counts, right?

So basically, It’s been a great day.  No really.  I had my weekly lunch-date with a friend of mine today and he made a great point.  Most people would look at two or three of these things and think that the world was out to get them that day and DECIDE that the rest of the day was going to be just as bad.  Then they would work to fulfill their own prophecy, sort of like a defense mechanism to reassure themselves that bad things in life are beyond their control.  I had a different response.  I laughed when I told the story…  I guess that God has done something different in me.  I have total peace, the fruit of His wonderful Spirit working in me.

Besides that… I have other reasons to be extra joyful today.  I woke up and spoke with the Lover of My Soul.  Then my ABSOLUtely amazing girlfriend of one month (as of today) texted me and I had a chance to speak with her for a moment before she started work.  (Yes, I know… I’ve gotta catch you all up).  It was only a moment, but each one is precious.  After that, I carried on in the Word of God.  I’d say that the day had a pretty great start, don’t you think?  It’s a beautiful day… it’s all about perspective.

Now I’m off to shower, then I will watch this paper magically appear on the page… I’m serious.  You might be surprised.

Whatever Happened to the SABBATH?

Last year I had an amazing revelation.  Ready For it?  It will Change your life.  Here goes: The Sabbath day is supposed to be kept HOLY!

Pretty simple right… After all, it is one of the Ten Commandments.  But we seemed to have forgotten that “rule” in the midst of the rest of the rules through the modern fight against legalistic thinking and living.  We are all about living free from the law and under grace.  We are so for it that we often forget that the law was never abolished by Christ, and that to this day, it exists for our own benefit, even though we are “free” from it.  Sure we can eat all of the pork chops we want, but we all know that God was probably trying to protect our health by keeping us away from that filthy animal.  And in this particular case, under grace, we are no longer legally bound to the Sabbath… But why work when you can rest?  I know what you’re thinking: “Because I have soooo much to do, and so little time.  God understands, right?” Sounds legit.  After all, God wants us to succeed in all of our endeavors.  So since it is a bit too easy to give a reason why we should take advantage of our chance to “live under grace” and ignore the law of the Sabbath in the name of productivity, I will attempt to answer an opposite question: “Why should we be diligent to rest according to God’s prescription?”

Most of the following comes from an old journal entry from June of 2006:

“[In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.]  By the end of day 6, He saw through to the end of the world and He wasn’t/isn’t worried one bit.  [Even] his plan for redemption was established before the fall (Rev 13:8).  Genesis 2:2 says God finished all of his work.  [Considering the eternal weight of his words, I don't believe that our eternal God would have called anything "good" without first looking at it's end.]  God who exists outside of time worked ahead of time to make sure that all would be well for us.  He does not sit on the edge of His seat looking to see how to respond to our mistakes and the Enemy’s attacks.  He already responded [to the entire future in the beginning], and when he saw the end, He said it was ‘VERY Good,’ [and He rested.  And now, He invites us into HIS rest] (Hebrews 4).“

What is the “rest of God?”  What does it require?  How do we access it?  The rest of God is assurance, it requires trust, and it is accessed by faith.

I had two midterm exams today (Tuesday).  As soon as those were finished, I had to read as much of 80 pages of an academic psychology document that I could in order to post a coherant comment on Blackboard by 5pm.  After working all weekend, spending one entire night in prayer at church, and taking care of a couple random issues that showed up on my doorstep over the weekend, I had very little time to study on Sunday.  I did as much as I could and went to bed, excited about Monday.  What is so great about Monday?  Monday is my chosen day for a Sabbath (Lord knows that my Sunday’s ain’t restful… and forget about Saturdays.  The grace I choose to access is the grace that allows me to choose the day).  Yesterday morning, I woke up early and spent the whole morning with God.  Then, at noon, I had a scheduled lunch with a new friend of mine.  Following our lunch, I went back to my appartment and started a new book.  Later on, I had a great conversation with one of our new worship team members, then I went on to play my guitar for a couple hours as I waited for the start of Monday Night Live.  At the end of MNL, I stuck around for a couple more hours strumming away.  It was a great day… and the last thing on my mind was my exams and my readings.

Then the night came to an end, so I sacrificed my first few hours of Tuesday to be sure that I was ready for the first exam.  I was pretty confident about it, so I went to bed.  I awoke three hours later, surprisingly refreshed and ready to go.  I studied for a couple more hours, then went in and killed the test (if you don’t understand my slang… that’s a good thing).  Two hours of studying later, I went into my demography class and killed that exam too.  I blanked out on one part of the last question on the exam, but it was definitely not enough for me to regret a wonderful day’s rest.  Finally, after an hour’s worth of reading, I posted what I thought to be 2 brilliant discussion questions.  I was able to rest because I knew that God had my back.  On my sixth day (Sunday), I looked at the work that I had done in the week, then looked forward to Tuesday, and by looking at it from God’s perspective, I was able to see that “it was [gonna be] very, very good.”  So I rested.  I rested and I enjoyed his presence with me all day.  And guess what… everything really did work out.

So the question I am asking is “why should we be diligent to rest?”, but the real question is “why not?”  The Sabbath rest is about trust, and God is worthy of it.  I’ve been doing this Sabbath thing for awhile now, and although it may seem contradictory, I had never accomplished more in my life in a given seven-day week than I am able to do now in six.  (Maybe it is partly because I take my six work-days more seriously.  The first part of the Sabbath command is to “work six days,” so I try to honor both parts of the command to the best of my ability).  I can only rest to the degree that I can trust God.  When he said “it is good,” I believe that he was also looking forward to my own individual future.  He is not worried about me.  He saw my end.  My destiny has already been assured, and every week he reminds me that he’s got everything covered.  Every week, I learn in a new way that he is faithful to that word.

If your boss gives you paid vacation, you’re gonna take it.  So think of it this way.  When God set the Sabbath apart, he was giving you 1/7th of your life as “vacation” from your your own agenda.  He gives it with a guarantee (payment) that everything will still be “very good” in the end.  All you have to do is trust him enough to rest, free from worry.  So I ask again, why would you break your neck trying to “get things done,” when God promises that you can accomplish all that really needs to be done when you trust him enough to “waste” an entire day on Him?  I challenge you to take Him at his word.  Pick a day, spend it with him, grab a book, buy a guitar, get in front of a piano, spend time with your family, enjoy the world that he created as a gift for you.  Do what you had always wanted to do and never had time.  Do it regardless of what tomorrow holds.  Since God is the one who told you to do it, I think that you will be surprised at how everything else perfectly and amazingly falls into place.