Church Stopping: God of Rest

(Shirk Ranch, photo from www.lesstravelednorthwest.com)

"Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm  46:10a)

"The industrial era at climax, in the panic of long-anticipated decline, has imposed on us all its ideals of ceaseless pandemonium. The industrial economy, by definition, must never rest. Rest would deprive us of light, heat, food, water, and everything else we need or think we need. The economic  impulse of industrial life (to stretch a term)  is limitless. Whatever we have, in whatever quantity, is not enough. There is no such thing as enough. Our bellies and our wallets must become oceanic, and still they will not be full. Six workdays in a week are not enough. We need a seventh. We need an eighth.  In the industrial world, at climax, one family cannot or will not support itself by one job. We need a job for the day and one for the night. Thank God for the moon! We cannot stop to eat. Thank God for cars! We dine as we drive over another paved arm. Everybody is weary, and there is no rest. (Wendell Berry, from the forward to Living the Sabbath by Norman Wirzba)

You all might have guessed from the delinquency of this post that it has been anything but a restful week.  It was a busy week with school and practice and getting ready for company to visit. 

In addition, the boys and I have been spending every waning daylight hour on an addition to the tree house. Actually, it is a brand-new tree house. We are thinking something akin to the Swiss Family Robinson version...so we have a long way to go!  We closed the pool and cut some firewood. I preached on Sunday and noticed a leak in the ceiling below our one working bathroom on Saturday. I guess when it rains it pours.

And on top of all of this, after several weeks of illness for the boys, double pneumonia for my wife, I was called in to work at 8:00 pm on Saturday and stayed until 1:00 am on Sunday.  In the midst of the madness on Saturday night, my wife sent me a text at work, "We so need a Sabbath!"  She was right, of course, but a late night call on Sunday sent my wife on an impromptu, 2.5 hour road trip to take care of a family member that is being admitted to the hospital.

Whew!

Everybody had gone through seasons like this. It seems hard to rest.  Sometimes, it seems impossible and we paddle like mad just to stay afloat. We hold on for dear life as our life lives us and God whispers, "Be still and know that I am God." 

It seems that life is less about doing more as it is about being more alive.

So on Sunday night, after preaching my sermon and working in our yard, I sat down and didn't get up. I couldn't move, so it was easy to finally be still.  My wife and I agreed that the bathroom leak could wait. Instead of working on it, we made some popcorn and had a family devotion with my parents who were visiting all the way from Wyoming.  Then we watched a movie.

Sure, the bathroom is still leaking, winter is fast approaching, daylight hours are shrinking, and a loved one convalescing...but even in the midst of this whirlwind of a life, God still commands us to be still.  It's a commandment because it's not natural, but it's a commandment wrapped in a promise.  The promise is that even when our lives are spinning out of control and we can't keep up, we can know that God keeps us.

Church Stopping. Less Doing. More being.