.: the statement of sabbath :.

Living where I am at right now in life consists of the same processes and procedures pretty much everyday. Between classes to attend, notes to take, papers to write, videos to watch, and articles to review, I wake up each morning to begin - or better yet, continue - the same process as the day before. And from the looks of things, this will be my steady diet for the next three years.



That is why this past Sunday, I took a break. In the midst of the final month of studies for this quarter - a time in which things begin to grow more heated - I took a Sabbath. A break... a rest... a pause in the form of a period of time. Being ever so fitting that it happened to occur on the recognized Lord's Day, I did what I felt I needed to do... I sought rest through setting aside "life" as I had been experiencing it for the past six days.



What I found suprising enough was enough was people's reactions to my doing so. In the context of graduate school, even one with a spiritual focus such as Regent, to take a Sabbath is really not what I would see as being typical of one's particular week. And in the face of feeling lately that I wish that I could do it, rather than turning myself back over to the books and papers, I sought some rest. In my heart of hearts, as busy as I felt (or am made even to feel by everyone else's business), I made the statement with that rest that spoke to my soul at a deep level. The statement sounded something like, "This is not what you were created for; work, study, busyness. You were created as a whole being!" And through creating some space in my life in the form of a Sabbath, that statement was heard loud and clear.



You see, in my own life, I live in a world... I function in a society... that has a powerful and effective way of fragmenting me. By the end of my week, by the time Saturday evening rolls around, there are large chunks of me that have broken apart from the rest. That is not healthy... that is not how I was created to exist. So through a pause in my week, by simply not doing what consists of the habits that I have taken on in the form of graduate work, I took this past week and the one that I woke up into this morning... and I broke them apart. I gave my life a distinct "beginning" and a distinct "conclusion". In the past, it has been the "same old, same old". But having experienced Sabbath in some sense, I woke to a morning that spoke of a brand new day... not just a fuzzy blur in the midst of trying to survive this quarter.



I need such a pause in my life in order to remain a whole person. It is at the very foundation of my identity as a creation of God, patterned for me by the Creator Himself (Genesis 1 & 2). It is not His desire that I remain so busy, so focused on pushing ahead and slugging through my piles of homework, that I remain shattered and weary. Rest brings health. Rest brings life. Rest brings stability at a soul level. I want to be a whole person, and yesterday, to fully live out that desire, I sought a Sabbath so as to invite God to remain at the center of what "life" means for me right now... and not just busyness.