The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
Part three: Practices for unhurrying your life
Sabbath (2|4)
Pages 150-159
TOGETHER read the book (END READING AT: Let me show you the two most important ones) then the following scripture slowly and attentively.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
Ezekiel 20:20 (NIV) “Keep my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.”
Mark 2:27 (NIV) “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
GROUP DISCUSSION:
A.J. Swoboda wrote: It is not as though we do not love God - we love God deeply. We just do not know how to sit with God anymore. We have become perhaps the most emotionally exhausted, psychologically overworked, spiritually malnourished people in history.
What is your reaction to that statement?
Share just one or two things that stood out to you while reading the book and/or scripture. (try to keep it brief)
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your notes and pray.
The Sabbath was made for man. It was created, and designed, by God himself. And it’s “for” us. A gift to enjoy from the Creator to the creation. To gratefully receive.
Why is the gift so hard to receive/put into practice?
If it was made for man by God and put into our DNA why do we ignore it?
How can we become more aware and aligned to it?
Last time we looked at the definition of Sabbath, which comes from the Hebrew word which means “to stop.” But it can also be translated “to delight”. It has this dual idea of stopping and also of joying in God and our lives in His world. The Sabbath is an entire day set aside to follow God’s example, to stop and delight.
Psalm 37:4 (NIV) Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
It’s an invitation. He rested. He stopped. He set aside an entire day to just delight in His world. He blessed the seventh day and made it holy. So there is a rhythm in creation. Six and one. And when we tap into this rhythm, we experience health and life. But when we fight this rhythm - ignore it, suppress it, push past it, bully it, make excuses, look for a way to get out of it - we reap the consequences. We all come to Sabbath, voluntarily or involuntarily. Sabbath is coming for you, whether as delight or discipline. Maybe that’s why God put it right in the Ten Commandments. (it’s number 4 - right after misusing the name of God and right before honoring your mother and father)
What is your reaction to this statement?
Does it sound more like an invitation or a threat?
Due to our immaturity, dysfunction, and addiction, God has to command his people to do something deeply life-giving - rest.
EXTRA READING:
“Whatever I had read as a child about the saints had thrilled me. I could see the nobility of giving one’s life for the sick, the maimed, the leper. But there was another question in my mind. Why was so much done in remedying the evil instead of avoiding it in the first place? Where were the saints to try to change the social order, not just to minister to the slaves, but to do away with slavery?”
- Dorothy Day (1897 - 1980)