My Sabbath

I often need rest, but find myself unable to stop my work. I am constantly checking my to-do list, my emails, bank account, and social networks. After a while, I find myself yearning for a live person...and the outdoors. I remember through college and working a full time job how my mind and body got bogged down. I would often think, man what I'd give for a day of rest. 

After all my studying on the topic of rest, I am baffled. I am amazed when I think even God took a day of rest. I am amazed at how He created our bodies to be nonfunctional without it. He thought it so important that he commanded us to do it! I take this to mean that it is a sin to not do it! So why do I always feel guilty for resting? ...because I think resting makes me ineffective, a slacker.

But in reality, it is the opposite.
When I take my Sabbath and honor it, I find that I am much more affective. I feel free. During my Sabbath, I go to my God by doing whatever it is that I do to feel close to Him. It is essentially worship. Thus, for each of us is something different. For me, I prefer to call on Him in nature. I sing to Him, lay my heavy burdens at His feel through prayers either spoken or written, study his word, or sit quietly.

This week when I took my Sabbath, it rained. I don't know about everywhere else in the world, but in the South, when it rains, the world slows a bit. Less people go out, and when they do they drive slower. It made my Sabbath perfect. It allowed me to do some soul searching. I remembered that God has called me to be a teacher. He has allowed me to find a career to fulfill His calling for my life. By teaching, I can help others. I can have weekends off, for my Sabbath...and through this pure refreshing water from the sky...through this rain, I have been made clean.

A close friend once wrote, "The hardest decision in man's life has to be the act of becoming emptied for a higher gain." But through this action: through honoring my Sabbath once a week, I find that I am rejuvenated and refreshed.