A day of rest...

Sunday is sabbath. It is a day of rest, a day for rejuvenation.  Preachers don't celebrate sabbath on Sunday, of course. We pick a different day of the week. Well, sometimes we do.  Sometimes we don't have time, or at least that's what we tell ourselves. We have this habit of taking a couple hours here and a couple hours there and letting that "add up" to a sabbath day.

This is not a good thing.  God declared a full day as sabbath.  There is a reason for that. We need a full day of no work. We need to know from day to day when we will be able to shut down and just rest.  This means that the day shouldn't be different each week. The same day every seven days of complete rest.  This means no research papers, no sermon prep, no catching up on stuff at home that you didn't get done earlier.  It is a day to enjoy a good book or visit family and friends.  It is a day to work on a favorite hobby. It is a day to simply take your mind off of worries and work and, instead, rejoice in the day that the Lord has made.

The problem for me is scheduling. I procrastinate and I think I do it because I haven't scheduled any down time for myself.  When I have that time scheduled, I am less inclined to put off things I need to do.  It takes practice, however. It also takes setting boundaries.  If it's a sabbath day for me, I don't answer the phone or emails for school question, church questions, and the like.  I can usually tell by the person calling or emailing.  I screen calls closely on my sabbath.  I have had to set these expectations with people and often times they aren't happy about it.  Often the problem is that my sabbath day doesn't coincide with theirs.  It can be frustrating but if you can set aside one day each week for sabbath and communicate that information, then you can get past the frustration in time. 

I write all of this to suggest two things. First is that you need to make sure you have a sabbath day, a day you use for rest and rejuvenation. Take time to be grateful for all the little things along with the big things. 

Secondly, you recognize that your pastor also has a sabbath day which isn't Sunday. Respect their time, please. They are already going to work at home and much more than the 40 hours expected. If your pastor has office hours, use those hours to contact them.  This is not to say that if there is an emergency, don't call your pastor. Please do call them.  Please do keep your pastor in the loop especially regarding hospitalizations.

Be blessed and enjoy your day of rest...