writing on the sabbath, but not ON the sabbath

i had never really thought anything about the sabbath until my sophomore year of college. the guy who sent out the weekly email for the Wesley Foundation mentioned in one of his emails that he tried to get his school work done on Friday and Saturday so that he could honor the Sabbath. that was a really interesting thought to me and i decided to try it, because i was really into doing everything back then. unfortunately, i was also really into procrastination and could never really get the hang of doing things in advance.

my roommate used to always tell me "if your ox falls in a ditch on the sabbath, you can dig him out" meaning, the sabbath makes exceptions for emergencies (aka tests and projects) i took this to heart.

it wasn't until that summer that i felt any sort of conviction about keeping the sabbath, of course, at the time i was going to school in Athens monday through friday and then driving to kennesaw to work saturday and sunday. no rest. the Lord told me then, as clearly as i have ever heard Him, to stop. so i did. i stopped working on sundays and trusted him for the income. and He provided.

oops, speaking of work, i just got called in...to be continued...

how ironic to get called into work while writing about resting...anyways...

ever since that summer i have made an effort to take sundays off and to honor the sabbath as we were commanded. i mean, have you looked at the ten commandments lately? every one of them is like one line "You shall have no other gods before Me" You shall not murder" etc but the commandment for the sabbath is a whole paragraph. Then God brings it up over and over again through the rest of the books of the law.

check it out:

"Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death" Exodus 31:14

it sounds like God is pretty serious about this sabbath thing.

and you know, i am not sure that i really understand why.

i mean, i get the whole rest thing, especially giving your lands and animals a rest, it makes since, but what makes a day of rest holy? and why it a sign between us and God? and why is breaking the sabbath deserving of death?

The closest i have come to understanding this was when i was living in Tanzania and i worked with people who NEVER rested. seriously, they worked seven days a week and never took any time off. They are some of the hardest workers i have ever met and they walked the fine line of legalism (or just jumped right over it).

i was really burdened with the importance of rest in ministry, because really there is so much risk in leading people to God if you are not taking the time to go there yourself. and you know, a lot of people who stop taking that time of rest and restoration do find death. Just like your field will stop yielding and your animals will stop performing if they never get rest.

one morning while i was in Tanzania i woke up with a phrase running through my head:

"there remains for us a rest"

This comes from Hebrews chapter four when Paul tells us to be "diligent to enter that rest"

yikes. this really is serious.

so anyways, the reason that this has been on my mind again lately is because i have been working a lot and i have been working on sundays which i don't like to do. but really if you think about it, originally the sabbath was on a saturday, so does it matter what day it is? should it be a literal day of rest or is it the heart of the law that really matters?

honestly, i don't know.

i hope you weren't looking for some sort of answer because well, i don't really have any.

sorry.