Sabbatical

A friend referred to these days I am in as a sabbatical, and I immediately latched on to the term.  In the academic world, it is a year to be spend renewing and refreshing through travel, study, and rest, taken roughly every seven years.  In the trenches of motherhood, it is an unknown concept.  In the busy-ness of our American culture, even a weekly Sabbath rest is hard to carve out.

We sometimes picture God brushing the dust off his hands in the Genesis account of creation, then settling back in a recliner for a well earned rest, his work done.  Then we compare that to our own lives and bolster our decision to work straight through every day of every week of every month with a  "I'd love to rest, but there's just too much work to do.  Maybe someday when it's done."  A line in Wonderstruck has stayed with me this week:  "Sometimes it's easy to read the story of creation and think that on the seventh day God's work was done, but really God's work had only just begun.  Yet God chose to rest anyway."

This is a challenge for the side of me that loves to check things off lists, and that always has a much bigger list in my head than I could ever complete in several lifetimes.  Choosing to rest anyway.  The overachiever in the back of my mind is raising her hand, ready to denounce the laziness. 

I read further, and ponder along with the author that the two longest commandments are worshiping only God and not idols, and observing the Sabbath.  Even the overachiever is forced to put her hand down when confronted by this thought:

Apart from developing a healthy rhythm of rest, we succumb to idols and their constant demands.  The Sabbath provides the space we need to recognize the false gods that slip into our lives when we are distracted.  This holy day gives us the opportunity to remove them and recalibrate our lives to God.

Gulp.  My idols.  In this sabbatical time, God is revealing them for what they are, and they sometimes show up in unlikely places.  They have snuck in to my life, with their promises that by following them, everything else will be good.  By carefully adhering to each item on their lists, I'll have nothing to worry about.  And worst of all, I realize that many of them crept in by disguising themselves as God's will.  At first a well-intentioned way of following God, they had shifted and grown so much that trust began to be placed on them instead.  News reports have a way of revealing them lately.  I'll hear something and begin to think, "Oh, but I don't have to worry about that, because we . . . .  oh wait, we don't.  Aggghhhh!  What will we do, we're not safe anymore?!?"  And just like that, an idol is revealed for what it had started to become, something sneaking in place of God.

This sabbatical time is reminding me that our true safety and rest only come from the One whom we follow, not on our actions or those of others.  And that in the end, God is bigger than even the worst nightmare that we can imagine, and is capable of redeeming it into something beautiful, for His glory.  So if you catch me with my feet up for a bit, pull up a chair and join me?  The lists will still be there, the laundry isn't going to run off, and as long as the kids are in a secure location, they can entertain themselves for a few minutes.  We'll take a few minutes to rest and seek God, and remember that the world really won't stop turning if we pause.