From Absurdity 

to Obedience.       

by: Pastor Tony Haglund, Canton Lutheran Church  

Henri Nouwen, Roman Catholic priest, used to say that our lives have become absurd - because in the word absurd we find the Latin word surdus, which means deaf. Nouwen was speaking of the busyness of our lives that can become so loud that it drowns out God's voice. Author Wayne Muller writes that "in our spiritual life we need to listen to the God who constantly speaks but whom we seldom hear in our hurried deafness."

Nouwen also reminds us that the word obedient comes from the Latin word audire, which means "to listen." Our spiritual lives then become a pilgrimage from absurdity to obededience -- from deafness to listening. Sabbath Living invites us to surrender fully to the quiet of Sabbath time so that we are eventually able to move from a life filled with noisy worries to a life that listens to God and is therefore aware of the many gifts and blessings of our life. 

Does the idea of keeping the Sabbath seem absurd to you in our modern day world? Perhaps you've forgotten the sound of God's voice and the sheer joy of surrendering to his love in obedience?