Sabbath (Stronghold)

Eleven Pax, took the Daily Red Pill (DRP) this morning and got better.

The Pax: Aruba, Snake, Flying Tomato, Chitwood, UGA, FroYo, McFly, TacoCat, T-Bone, Scout (Q: Squirrel)

The Scene: Wonderful morning to be out in the Gloom

Warm Up:  Michael Phelps, Arm circles, Right-over-left foot stretch thingy & flapjack

The Thang:    

• Mucho Chesto 
• 30 mountain climbers IC
• 10 Hand release Merkins IC 
• 30 mountain climbers IC
• 100 calf raises OYO

Mosey around the AO

• 1 Minute Wall Sit 
• 1 Minute Star Jumps
• 1 Minute Wall Sit 
• 1 Minute Star Jumps

Mosey around the AO

1 Min Monkey Humpers   -rest-   and “Dude we just did these” 1 more minute of Monkey Humpers

Mosey around the AO and stop at the wall

• 1 Minute Right Leg step Ups
• 10 Lower left heel to ground In Cadence
• 1 minute Right Leg step Ups

            Flapjack

• 1 minute squats
• 1 minute curtsey squat
• 30 seconds left leg forward lunge (hold)
• 30 seconds lunge pulse
• 1 minute squats
• 1 minute curtsey squat
• 30 seconds right leg forward lunge (hold)
• 30 seconds lunge pulse

 1 Minute wall sit and then to the courts for some:

• 30 Freddy Mercury’s In Cadence
• 20 Long slow flutter
• 10 LBCs

 

Prayer requests:

1. Praises for all the youth that are giving of themselves on missions and prayers of comfort for them too as they are away from home…some for the longest ever (McFly’s and Chitwood daughters, Roadhouse’s son). 
2. For T-Bones niece(?) who is getting married this weekend. In this time of great joy she will miss sharing this beautiful day with her mom…let’s hope she knows her mom is with her in spirit
3. For Rafiki as he continues to shoulder so much helping others out of the pit of addiction
4. For strength as Voicebox steps outside the walls of the recovery center to attend a funeral
5. Continued prayers for Snake’s mother and all those who are impacted in her struggle with cancer…it takes a toll on the whole family

Announcements:

Mentorship at Tomato ‘s (350 Linden Road), June 26th @5:30.  CPT D will be speaking on why we mentor

 FroYo led us out in prayer

 

MOLESKINE: Sabbath

Definition: a day of religious observance and abstinence from work, kept by Jewish people from Friday evening to Saturday evening, and by most Christians on Sunday.

My M and I have started the habit of Sabbath’ing on Sunday for the past month.  You know what?  It’s been amazing.  Not just refreshing, relaxing, reconnecting, it has been A-Maz-ing!

I know most of you have families, obligations, things going on AND let me remind you of something;  God made everything on Earth and when he finished working God rested. 

STOP.  Read that again.  God rested.

You may be sitting there thinking, “Yeah, but at this stage of my life I’m busy.  I’m working two jobs, we just had a kid, I coach soccer…”

 

God rested.  Guess you must have bigger things going on than He did.  

Is it sinking in?

 

After six days of hard work, God said “Okay, enough.  Time to rest.”  He didn’t just do it once, he made it a commandment.  (It’s the 4th)

 

To be clear, Sabbath isn’t the same as a day off or a day for just rest; it’s also a day for worship.  Taking a day off and calling it the Sabbath is, as Eugene Peterson calls it, “bastard sabbath.”   That sabbath has you running errands, paying bills, cleaning up around the house, etc.  That’s not Sabbath and those aren’t things that rest your soul.

 

The best analogy I can think of is: You work hard all week, which looks like one of those hot days of summer in August or something, when you go out to your yard and you spend a long hard Saturday mowing the lawn, pulling the weeds, trimming the bushes, etc.  Then you take a quick shower (or not), walk back out on your patio, crack open a beer, sit down, and you delight. You look around at the work of your hands and you just think: “it is very good.”

 

Before the Germans put up the first public clock in Cologne, Germany in 1370, you went to bed when it was dark and woke up when it was light.  Simple.   Then it was the lightbulb, allowing us to work after dark. Then the internet…Netflix, etc.  Now we live in a world without rhythm.  The clock, the lightbulb, Social media, YOLO, FOMO, all of that.  We go and we go and we go and never stop. We never sabbath.

 

News Flash!  You are not a machine. You are a mere human. You were not made to go and go and go. As John Mark Comer puts it, “You were made to live into the rhythm that is embedded in creation itself.”

 

At one point, most people did have a day off—every week. Remember the Blue Laws?  The world was turned off, stores were closed, people stayed home and rested.  Around some time in the 60s, that day got filled up for the sake of convenience, needless productivity, and of our inability slow down. We used to stop not to be idle or lazy, but to refresh our minds, body and soul.   Now, busyness has replaced relaxation as a sign of wealth. Our society has begun to glorify the workaholic.

 

Wayne Mueller opens his beautiful book Sabbath was this paragraph:

“In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between work and rest. All life requires a rhythm of rest. There is a rhythm in our waking activity and the body’s need for sleep. There is a rhythm in the way day dissolves into night, and night into morning. There is a rhythm as the active growth of spring and summer is quieted by the dormancy of fall and winter. There is a tidal rhythm, a deep, eternal conversation between the land and the great sea. In our bodies, the heart perceptibly rests after each life-giving beat; the lungs rest between the exhale and the inhale. We have lost this essential rhythm.

 

Here’s something else; you can have a full schedule and still Sabbath.  Not a crazy busy schedule that has you running from thing to thing to thing (work, drinks with friends, church, volunteer).  Corrie ten Boom once said “if the devil can’t make us sin, he’ll make us busy.” Because sin and busyness have a similar effect. They cut us off with our living, restful connection.

 

For my M and I, Sabbath means being out in nature for a walk around Reservoir Park, or Uwharrie.  We have soul-level conversations.  We partner in making a meal, then take a nap on the back porch.  Maybe we’ll play cards or read.  Basically, Sabbath is whatever is life-giving to our souls.  For me, my phone is either off or on airplane mode.  My laptop is put away, and I’m sorry if you can’t get a hold of me.

 

Here’s the deal, life is never done. It’s just never done…until it’s done, and then it is done.  Life is here, life is now.  What I find when I sabbath, actually take the time to power down and rejuvenate…the universe still manages to get along fine without me for the day.  Can you believe it??  Sabbath is my weekly reminder of what life is actually about. What matters and doesn’t matter. It’s a weekly reminder of who I am at my core…and it’s not what I do for work. 

Sabbath is a weekly line in the sand that says to me I am loved by the Father who is telling me to sit back and just delight in the hard work I did.

Doesn’t this kinda rest sound good to you?

 

Aye!