The Sabbath Principle
How can we sift through the slide show of our experiences in order to make sense of the future and the past? How can we sit still long enough to find out what moves us most? How can we recall where our truest happiness lies and consider whether we are making a living or making a life? It is not our experience that makes our lives, its what we do with it. Shakespeare said in Hamlet, there is nothing either good or bad that thinking makes it so. Much of our lives takes part inside our heads, in memory or imagination or interpretation or speculation. If we really want to change our lives, we might best begin by changing our minds. Shakespeare never had to face 200 emails a day and never had the distraction of facebook. If you look at the ten commandments there is only one of the ten from which the adjective holy is used – Sabbath. The longest chapter of the first five books of the bible is on the Sabbath, we all know free time is one of our greatest luxuries. It is the empty space in many a piece of music, the pause or the rest that gives the piece its beauty or shape. In an age of acceleration nothing can be more exhilarating than going slow. In an age of distraction nothing can be more luxurious than paying attention, and in an age of constant movement, nothing is as urgent as sitting still with God. Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and the church.
