Forgotten Sabbath

Maybe I didn't get the word! None of the blogs I regularly read have anything new on them today. Perhaps Sunday is blog sabbath? Today we talked about tithing at church. Growing up in the church of Christ, the only thing I heard about tithing was that it was part of the Old Law and we do not have to do that. I'm sure the messages were presented better than that, but that's all I remember. It felt funny to talk about tithing, and even suggest it as a spiritual part of our kingdom walk. I've noticed more talk about the sabbath as well. You church of Christers know that we do not practice the sabbath (for the same reason we do not tithe). The forgotten sabbath is a matter of attention in the publishing world. I have a few books now that are suggesting we go back and practice some of the sabbath principles in our lives. Maybe they've been there all along and I was ignorant of them. But I really think our culture has pushed us to the max and we can either live at some incredible pace, or we can slow down and have a real life. What's our hurry? Maybe taking a sabbath from the blog is a good thing to do on Sundays. But I'll just have to think about that. I do think we need to re-think "sabbath" principles and understand the value of solitude and silence. Cultural values are all upside down. Stop listening to "successful" people telling you how to be "successful". None of them are as successful as Jesus Christ, and some of them twist his message into a kind of workaholic mutation of the gospel. It is in the simple ways that we do not want to follow Jesus. He went up on a mountainside to pray. But did he carry a laptop? A journal? Did he make productive lists of things to do while he was there? Did he delegate responsibility to someone else so that the 'down' time was not overburdened by a lack of progress? Quiet your soul! Turn away from stress-inducing guilt-motivated living, and just BE a disciple of the Master. Not the world's greatest disciple ... just a disciple. Leave the fame, fortune, success, and ladder-climbing to some other soul. Maybe the brightest light we can be in our culture is to be satisfied, settled, collected, and trusting in His grace. Now that you've read my sermon to myself, you can go about blogging as usual. Class dismissed.