Take This Sabbath Day...

James Kingsley posted some thoughts (www.jameskingsley.blogspot.com) about the dangers of having a job you love—yes, you read that right, folks. As he put it, “the only thing more dangerous than a job you hate, is a job you love”, because it’s so easy to forget about all the other things you used to love to do. Reading his post made me think about my recently-renewed desire to keep a weekly day of rest. After taking a very thought-provoking course on the New Testament this fall, I decided that I needed to create space for the Sabbath during my week. I committed to taking Sunday afternoons and evenings off, as well as Wednesday mornings.

I never imagined what a learning experience this would be for me. At first, I found it really hard to think of things to do! It was such a shock to discover that I didn’t know what to do with my free time anymore. My life had been so wrapped up in church-work for so long that I really didn’t have a lot of interests outside that. I started playing the piano one afternoon and was startled at how difficult it was—and then I realized that it was because I had literally not touched a piano in a year. This instrument that I grew up with, that I used to pour myself into, had been left to collect dust after I left the worship team at church—playing just wasn’t a priority anymore.

The biggest surprise of all? How much it doesn’t pack the rest of my week full of extra work that I used to do on Sundays. I don’t find myself cramming things in on a Saturday night, nor do I groan on Monday mornings because I know I have to play catch up. Honestly, I have no idea why—Sunday afternoon used to be my busiest time! I don’t know why or how this works, but it does. Maybe it’s because I’m more refreshed because of my time off—I don’t know. But I’ll consider it a blessing and not look a gift horse in the mouth.