sabbath and time away

Thursday at our mall food court Bible study we were studying the prophet Jeremiah chapter 17. The one specific thing that Jeremiah lists in the behavior of the people of Judah in chasing after other gods is that they don't observe the sabbath.

We talked a lot about how in our culture among some age groups there is a desire to blanket our institutions with the 10 Commandments. One comment was that if WE want to put them up in schools and courts, WE need to post them first in our churches. And then WE need to practice them so the world around us could see them and understand them. It is only in the living of the 10 Commandments that they are "posted" on the hearts and minds of the world around us. They will see them more clearly if we observe them, then if they are only words on a wall or on paper without any faith and heart in them.

Then we talked about how faithful we in the church observe the 4th commandment of observing the sabbath and keeping it holy. We don't! This isn't saying that SUNDAYS need to be the day of sabbath, but that every 7 days we need a day fully devoted to God, to worship, honor and praise God. That is the only way we will have God at the center of our being. It is the only way we will care for God's creation...beginning with the care for ourselves as part of God's creation.

Jesus is often said to have gotten up early in the morning and at other times to seek a place and time away from the people around him. Yesterday I realized that I have not been doing this myself. I crashed. I was exhausted, with a numbed mind. I have tried too much to fix and save the church and other people. I thought this was my mission from God. My mission from God is to share my experience of Jesus Christ with the world around me. In that mission each of us will take daily time away and do weekly sabbath. The church has lost its way because we do not do this.

I find myself in a quandry around this as I coach one of my daugther's soccer teams and both my daughters play soccer...one on two teams, let alone all the other activities that they and Martha and I are in. We have this fear that if we don't do these things, we will miss out on something...especially for our daugthers in their opportunities for college and beyond. But they are already missing out on that which is most vital...time away and sabbath time with God.

I cannot organize the church or other people to do this. I will live it myself. As I write this, it spooks me the courage that it will take to simply shift our lifestyle to this way of living because the community around us does not relate and live this way. May God give me the courage and the patience to observe the sabbath and keep it holy.

journey of faith

This thing called the journey of faith is not easy. Yet it provides the most wonderful gifts of peace I have ever known. In the last four years I have spent a great deal of time particularly in studying the Acts of the Apostles and Paul's teaching letter or epistles in the New Testament. I see the present day church more and more as I read these. And I hear from more and more people the desire to learn from these lessons of our great ancestral spiritual leaders.

I have been a great fan of the prophets of the Old Testament for years...at least 30. In the past few years I have returned to them as well. Right now our mall food court Bible study is reading Jeremiah. (We started four years ago in the food court reading Acts thinking it was in that kind of setting the Apostle Paul would come to today. We now average around 12-15 people a Thursday. Plus we interact with a variety of people who are regulars there on Thursdays plus other folks who see us with Bibles and come and ask us to pray for them with various life dilemmas they are facing.)

Yet, I am amazed at the lessons Paul is teaching us day after day.

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Molly broke her left clavicle at the soccer game tonight. She has great disappointment because she will miss the Miller South School and the Martell Dance Studio recitals, plus the rest of my teams and the Greater Akron Premier spring soccer seasons. But the break is not bad and will heal in 3-4 weeks. She wanted to keep playing...she was on a break-a-way to the goal when she got taken out by a girl twice her size and she went flying. This lesson of "change in plans" is a hard one for her right now. Great disappointment. (BTW, even with Molly gone, our team beat the first place team from Alliance 1-0!) As the team coach, I will miss her. I could rely on Molly to play any position as I needed, and she could do it well. She is a solid defender, even though she is small. Never lets a ball or player by her. Good instincts on the field.