Sabbath

Dear Friends,

Did you know there are 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday but we are to only fast, repent, lament, and recognize our ashiness during 40 of those days? Every Sabbath day, we are to step away from our fast and into the beautiful rest of God’s glory and grace. 

Every moment of every day I am nurturing something within me. I nurture bitterness about my endless to do list. I nurture hostility or prejudice towards certain people—religious, political, economical—believing they are the problem instead of seeing that I am. I nurture busyness, distraction, procrastination, self-absorption. I think of James and John, Jesus’s disciples, and what they nurtured even while they were physically present with the person of Jesus Christ. They nurtured greatness and influence, asking to be in a place of authority with Jesus. 

But this wrestling with what I allow myself to nurture can be exhausting. Paul writes in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Sabbath invites me to step away from doing all together. I’m invited to simply be. 

In Sabbath rest, I am no longer striving for purpose and meaning. In rest, I am no longer seeking recognition or identity. In rest, I am already forgiven and loved. In rest, I know my identity is fully intact as the beloved child of God. In rest, I nurture my spirit, body, mind, and heart, allowing God to reform me like clay. In rest, my soul is at ease to simply be.

So I light a candle to welcome the rest. My breath must slow down and still. My heart takes a sustainable pace. As the candle burns, it reminds me I am enough in my being that I may stop doing. 

May you pause your lenten fast on this Sabbath day and see God is good, that you are loved, forgiven, and complete. May you rest into God’s glory and grace. And may you simply be.

With (love),
Bethany