Sabbath

So, I’ve been reading about Sabbath. It’s a pause in routine, ideally 1 day out of 7.  Like the way God rested after he created everything. I read that it’s not really a suggestion, but a commandment. For our own good. Because we (especially this current generation) tend to go, go, go and not stop. Even when we think we’ve stopped, we still engage in T.V. watching, internet surfing, texting, facebooking, gaming and a host of other things electronic and otherwise.

We have a beautiful deck in our backyard. It’s quiet. There are trees and birds and a nice breeze. Yet, I find it very difficult to sit there without a book, or at least music. My dog doesn’t have this problem. He can lay around for hours, sleeping, watching, waiting for something exciting to happen.

Yet, we are commanded to stop our noisy ways. Put down the phone. Turn off the T.V. Let our minds rest. Maybe it’s hard to do because we don’t practice it enough. Since a whole day might be too much to start with, maybe we could start with a half an hour a day to take a walk, sit at the beach, talk to someone without an electronic device on our person (I know, but … but … but) eventually something exciting would happen. Maybe we would find a kind of peace, a kind of communion that we don’t allow right now. Maybe we would be able to sort out our thoughts, our priorities. Maybe we would give ourselves a chance to come to our senses.