Chill with the Father

There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven. 

A time to be born and a time to die.

A time to plant and a time to harvest.

A time to kill and a time to heal.

A time to tear down and a time to rebuild.

A time to cry and a time to laugh.

A time to grieve and a time to dance.

A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.

A time to embrace and a time to turn away.

A time to search and a time to lose.

A time to keep and a time to throw away.

A time to tear and a time to mend.

A time to be quiet and a time to speak up.

A time to love and a time to hate.

A time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 

Those of us who grew up in the 60’s-70’s rock and roll era readily remember these words from Ecclesiastes that drifted over the radio waves.  It has taken me a lot of seasons to really comprehend how important it is to understand that God has a  timing for everything and His principle of a time for quiet and rest is absolutely essential for our well being.  But we certainly don’t learn this from our culture!  We become so stressed out with all the things we think we need to do that we gravitate toward time management courses and sophisticated organizational systems to keep us on track.  That way we can squeeze out a little more useable time to fill up with things that stress us out even more, or so it seems.  Along with the rest of the country I became interested in the TV series The Apprentice, and became fascinated with how these would be apprentices maneuvered and competed as to how they could work smarter, to win the victory, with the prize being a high paying stressful job.  It seems so glamorous, so dripping with status laden success.  But as we know, even all that does not buy happiness or spiritual wholeness.    

Jesus, our ultimate example, took time to drink in the peace that comes from communing with God through prayer and quiet time.  If Jesus had time to ‘chill with the Father’ how silly can we be by thinking we can bypass that important element of life and still maintain a healthy outlook?  If God rested after making the world, how can we possibly think we can burn the candle at both ends without toasting our fingers?   

Schedules, finances and responsibilities often make it difficult to take a time of rest, but we that Sabbath..  It’s priority.  We need to refuel, drink in, and best of all take some sweet time and ‘chill with the Father.’    

God knew we would need times of quiet and rest.  So He not only implored us through His Word to ‘be still and know I am God’, but He showed by example (when Jesus lived on earth) and by constant visual demonstration (the seasons, the changes in weather, the light of day and the dark of night) that a part of a balanced whole and healthy life is one that includes seasons of rest.   So, as you plan your in your daytimer or mark your New Year’s calendar, may you pencil in  (actually no, write it in ink) some times for quiet pauses and spiritual refreshment.

Daytimer Disease

We really struggle with the concept of a Sabbath in our culture. We are a busy busy people! A 1998 Reuters report claimed that the average worker gets interrupted 169 times each day! When others ask us "how are you?" instead of "fine," we’re tempted to say "I’m busy !"

Thankfully, our source of ultimate wisdom and understanding – God’s Word - never changes. And the Bible is very clear about taking a day of rest. God Himself rested on the seventh day, and the Old Testament concept of a Sabbath wasn’t only for people. God gave guidelines for the land to rest, and crops to be rotated. God’s entire creation takes a necessary pause – day and night, summer and winter, a time to work and a time to rest. God’s Word is always right. It is a Biblical principle to work hard, and it is also a Biblical principle to take a time of rest – a Sabbath.

How often do we feel pulled in opposite directions? While responding to the needs of a child or spouse do we feel guilty about letting someone down at work? And while working do we feel guilty about not doing something at church? And while serving at church do we feel guilty about missing a significant event with one of our children? We feel pulled apart! But God’s Word is still true. We need to rest. Look at Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. There is a time for everything, and the Bible is consistent in regards to a sabbath rest.

Authors Graves and Addington in their book, The Fourth Frontier write: "Rest requires faith. It takes faith not to work on the Sabbath – faith not to worry about getting left behind, about getting everything done, about pressure from peers who don’t observe a biblical rest." Observing a Sabbath rest is not about a list of do’s and don’ts, but about trusting God to give us His wisdom and leading concerning our activities. It is not being legalistic about our schedules but allowing God to gracefully guide us day by day. He knows what we need, and created us to have a time of "refueling", of "drinking in", of restoration. Observing a Sabbath is about "ceasing from our doing" – actually, it’s about "being" instead of "doing." For God loves us simply because we belong to Him; not because of what we do. Even Jesus, with the constant demands on Him, often took times of rest to be with the Father and pray. And when He said "It is finished", it was.

Thanks to Stephen Graves and Thomas Addington for their insightful book, The Fourth Frontier

Psalm 90:12 Colossians 3:17 Ecclesiastes 7:18 Psalm 116:7 Matthew 11:28 Mark 6:31