A Year of Sabbaths (Week 43): Adventures in Eating

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He has also set eternity in the human heart...

(Ecclesiastes 3:11) 

Maybe waffle and bacon sandwiches, in addition to being a tasty adventure in eating, can stop the exodus of faithful from the church.

You've probably heard the news: "Seventy percent of American adults identified themselves as Christian in 2014, a decline of five million adults and 8 percentage points since a similar survey in 2007." (www.nytimes.com)

It is a scary statistic for those of us that believe that the church is still the best way to be transformed by Jesus; the one true hope for life well-lived in the present and joy and peace for all nations in the future. There are many reasons that have been offered to explain the exodus: Christianity is too close to the political right. Christianity is too close to the political left. Christianity is not contemporary enough. Christianity is not traditional enough.  There's too much corruption. There's too much hypocrisy.

Nope. (If I may be so bold...)

I think that the real problem in our churches is the same problem that is facing organizations like Kiwanis and PEO; we are just too busy. Our families have children simultaneously involved in school, competitive swimming, youth group, and private violin lessons. Mom and Dad are both working, often more than one job, to support a lifestyle that allows children access to all the things that they need to do to get into the college of their choice plus the annual family trip to Disneyland and Vail...not to mention laundry and yard work.

Whew!

All of these things are good things, but with all the busyness it is hard to find time for church.  And then, if we make it into church, we discover that are churches are busy places as well. There's Sunday School for all ages.  Early worship. Late worship. Saturday worship. Vacation Bible School. Mission trips. Women's circles. Men's ministry. Choir practice. Bible study. And property committee.  All of these things are good things that keeps us, sometimes, from our one true hope.

The antidote to restless life syndrome is Sabbath.  And this is where adventures in eating come in.  I took a day off last week. Just me and the boys.  Man day.  It started with some wrestling before breakfast and then off to the library.  We spent some time reading and then had a dream lunch; frozen waffles-toasted and used as bread surrounding beautiful bacon and crisp lettuce.  Adventures in eating.  It was a delight to spend time with three wonderful boys who one day, I pray, will find time in their busy days to spend time with their children cooking up all kinds of adventures...and I hope, even with all the hypocrisy and politics, they will take them to church.

After all, there's an eternity in our hearts; a hunger to connect to one another and something bigger; something immortal...someONE. We can. It all starts with stopping.

Church stopping. Less doing. More being.