I was looking at my calendar and trying to decide when to make a trip home to see my dad. Lent starts in less than a we
ek. 21 days to Spring, 40 Days to Easter. Board meetings, Coaching Clusters, meetings, Kingdom Advancement events, new sermon series, writing deadlines, staff decisions. Wow does the calendar fill up fast.
I discovered something about my calendar. Something that is a trap, a snare, a stumbling block. Something that can easily occur that can have a huge impact. I know it's a trap that others face, I hear them talk about it all the time. It's that trap of just being too busy, too many things scheduled, too many items on the to do list. Overloaded, overcommitted, we complain about the schedule (often as we're adding this to it). For many of us that busy schedule is inescapable, as much as we may want less commitments, the calendar of events with family, kids, work, church seems to be a cruel taskmaster, demanding more and more.
So what do we do? What does a leader do when faced with an overloaded schedule? I've heard many answers, but for many of us it seems coping with the overload looks like this: what you can't delegate to others, drop or ditch.
Delegate, drop, or ditch.
I've been reading again in the old books, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and that 'Deut' one and as I've been reading a word has been jumping off the page at me. A word that is a reminder of another choice in the face of the overloaded schedule.
Sabbath - That seventh day, that day of not working, the day of honoring God.
It made the top ten list of Commandments
. . . but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Ex 20:10-11 NIV
It was a perpetual holy practice to be observed. Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Ex 31:14 NIV
Leviticus and Deuteronomy echo the commands (Lev 23:3, Deut 5:12-14).
But it was in reading Exodus 16:29 that I was reminded of another important truth about the Sabbath. Yes, it was holy, yes it was commanded, yes it is a reminder of how God created, yes keeping the Sabbath honors God, but Exodus 16:29 reminds us of something else about the Sabbath.
Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath. . . Exodus 16:29
How huge is that in our overworked, overloaded scheduled weeks, there is a gift waiting to be unwrapped, embraced, enjoyed, and treasured! A day when the rat race is not run, when the rut is left behind on another road, a day of rest, renewal, recreation.
The Sabbath. I have been reminded of a powerful truth in recent days. The best way to deal with my ongoing overloaded often thin margin schedule, my ever increasing to do list is the weekly retreat to advance-the Sabbath. A day unlike the others when renewal is found so that we might advance again.
Have you allowed the schedule, the to do list, the everything of life to keep you from the Gift-the Sabbath.
Retreat to advance, the gift of the Sabbath, embrace it again.
the man in the window
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