The Fruits of the Sabbath - playing hide and seek...

Chris at People, books and the glory of Christ writes openly about how he is slowly learning what the Fruits of the Sabbath really are.

During seminary a friend of his gives a challenge in a question:

"Do you know what one command people broke the most in the Old Testament? What one thing God complained about the most when Israel was disobedient?". I took the bait. "Uh... no. What one thing did God complain about the most with the Jews?" I queried. "Breaking the Sabbath!" Keith fired back delightedly "God complains over and over again that Israel just won't take a break and let him take care of them. They keeping working and working to get more stuff. It's idolatry. They didn't believe that God would take care of them. They wanted to be the chosen people but they wouldn't live like they were really loved. When you are truly loved you can rest in that love. You don't have to do everything yourself."

This haunts Chris for a long time while working harder and harder into exhaustion and suddenly its not only a theological question anymore but plain reality:

Freed from the constant struggle of work I dragged myself into a coffee shop and curled up in a corner to rest. This time I had no theological conversation partner. Just a notebook, a bible and a fresh cup of Starbucks. I was too tired to even think clearly. But Keith's words continued to haunt me. Did I really believe that God loved me enough to take care of me? Was I willing to rest in that love and give up on constant striving to achieve and influence people? Was God frustrated with my unwillingness to let him care for me? The Sabbath seemed a useless waste of time to me. What good is a day spent doing nothing? It seemed like that it was no good at all. Read more.

Slowly Chris starts to realize what it is all about.... The thing is I know that this is one of the things I need to come in to. Why? Well I do run away from the Sabbath - that is spending time just being with God and trusting Him to take care of me. This I do in so many ways, reading books, sitting here at the computer, having fun for sure, but still hiding...

Now I am here, having constant colds, being tired and frustrated. I have been resting though, which has given me more energy for redesigning my blog, posting and other stuff. But the thing is, that's just another trip around the mountain... again... These insights are really playing hide and seek with me, that's for sure.