The Art of Wasting Time

I counseled an overworked person today with this quote finding its way out of my mouth: "If you never waste time, then you're wasting time." Some of us are so deluded and defined by busyness that we even speak of having a productive sabbath. This is oxymoronic. It's when we intentionally "waste time" that our minds are open to God and free to notice their surroundings. Without this, there is little chance of creative problem solving. This means, also, that if we never "waste time," we waste money, energy, and opportunities. I know I need to take my own advise here. 

May God bless you with carefree moments of rest, reflection, and renewal.  

You need a sabbatical

You need a sabbatical. At the risk of having snowballs thrown at my head in the church parking lot, I recommend a sabbatical. You need the time to think, read, talk, organize, and evaluate. I'm not kidding. I could even go so far as to say this is a word from the Lord. Hmm? Come to think of it, isn't there some stuff in the Bible about this? There's a word in the Bible that's like sabbatical: sabbath. How strange. The words must be related in meaning since they look and sound the same. Imagine actually stopping everything for one whole day every week. Who does this? Who has time? Time. Maybe God is on to something. Imagine the whole world taking a snow-day like today once a week, even through the Spring and Summer. Except, instead of frittering the morning away on Facebook, all would be into another book, a much older one, you know the one. 

Maybe I should describe my sabbatical as our 60-day snow-day with Jesus. Of course, I spent a month of it in warm, sunny, central Florida.

I guess I better wear a helmet as I walk between the church and the CE building next weekend.    

A Theology of Rest

I'm on vacation for a while now and have a two month sabbatical coming up at the beginning of next year. Both vacations and sabbaticals look great from a distance. When they actually begin, things look different. What do I do now? One thing I know: doing nothing is not restful. Rest is not inactivity. Rest is something which must be planned and engaged in. My 19-day vacation is one thing. A 60-day sabbatical is entirely another. There are all kinds of things on my to-do and goal lists: ministry at church, in the Air Force, via writing projects. All are challenging and involved. None, for me, come close to the challenge of rest. The Elders at Goodwill didn't know it when they "ordered" me to schedule a sabbatical, but they are forcing me to develop a theology of rest. Here's what I think I know so far about it:

1) The Bible concept of Sabbath is not marginal to healthy faith. It is central.

2) God, who doesn't need rest like He's designed us to, nevertheless, rests.

3) Rest and sabbath remind us that we are not in control, we are not indispensable, we are not what we do, we are not here forever, we can't keep up any pace forever, we can't maintain any activity forever, and we can't ignore the real cost of living: the spiritual-emotional cost each of us pays every hour of every day during life on this earth.

4) Rest doesn't have to be fun to be rest, especially at first.

5) Sabbath is designed by God to be part of a rhythm of life. He commands us to have this rhythm in life. Chaos and confusion are never His preference and often a warning that we have drifted too far away from Him.

6) God (like the Session of Goodwill Church!) will force rest on those who do not take it. 

What do you think? Do you have any contributions or thoughts concerning a theology of rest?