quiet

Sabbath, quiet, prayer, meditation, and reflection are integral parts of the Christian spiritual journey. Yet, they seem like luxuries to many of us. We think that once we get our "work" done then maybe we can do those kinds of things.

Jesus carved out daily time for these practices. It was the only way he could truly know his Father. In his last time of sabbath prayer and meditation we are allowed to listen in...the Garden of Gethsemane. It is deep struggle and yet deep obedience also. And it leads to deep connection in the most god awful moments on the cross.

In Genesis 1 God created the world in "7 days." In the first six days of creation God says each day's creation/work is "good." But on the 7th, the sabbath, he calls it "holy" rather than good.

We live in a world that is obsessed with the good. We think the ultimate purpose of our life is to be good or to become good. Church has been twisted to supposedly help us to be good people, good citizens, good Christians, good parents, good children and so on.

Our ultimate purpose in life is to be holy rather than good. And like Jesus in his daily regimen of discipleship spirituality as we hear it in Gethsemane, we can only become holy when we allow our lives to decline or as the Apostle Paul says, as we die to ourselves so that we might be alive in Christ.

With the world's demands on us, this is not easy. We will be called lazy or off task or not getting the job done. That is why reading the Bible is so important! That is the purpose of the Bible. To help we creatures to allow God to restore us not just to a good status, but to our life of holiness. Pray, mediate, reflect, observe the sabbath.