"anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work . . . "  - Hebrews 4:8b 

 

 

 

I listened to a spirit-provoking message this morning from Mars Hill Bible Church

 where Ruth Haley Barton talked about our longing for rest and how the Sabbath was intended by God to satisfy that longing.  Worth listening to.  (Obviously if I listened to it and thought it was good it is worth listening to!  :)  )

 

It got me thinking of my natural tendency to see limitations as bad.  I have thoughts at times like, "I wish I could do more physically than I can."  "I wish I absorb more emotionally than I can."  "I wish I could accomplish more than I can."  "There's not enough time to . . . (something very important)."  "I wish I could grow in maturity and in Christlike humanness faster than am capable of doing."

 

In other words, my life would be better if I were not so limited!  My humanity limits me so much.  I guess the reality is, I want to be like God, not limited by my humanness.   

 

Wayne Muller in his book Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in our Busy Lives points out "our culture invariably supposes that action and accomplishment are better than rest, that doing something - anything - is better than doing nothing."

 

The other day I was reflecting with one of my clients who lives in fear of losing control how usually 5-8 hours per day we are actually totally out of control, not doing anything at all - not keeping track of anything, not watching out for anything, not doing anything, period.  Now, we are not aware of how much of a need it meets to do nothing because we are sleeping, unconscious.  But while we are sleeping we are doing absolutely nothing to survive or change or control anything in our world.   I suppose our need for sleep is one of the more obvious ways that we are limited as humans.  What does it mean that in order to get our need for rest met we have to go unconscious many hours of each day?  Is that partly because there is no way we could consciously disengage that much?

 

As this client and I were talking, she started to feel dizzy, like she was going to pass out. After giving her a few minutes to settle a bit, we looked at the idea that her deep need for rest and to not be in control would actually be met by passing out.  (She wasn't really impressed by that idea!)  Sometimes, somehow, our bodies and minds know what we need better than we do!   They will give us a break if we aren't able to give ourselves true breaks.  Of course we would all like to choose when we take breaks, rather than be overtaken by them!

 

In her message Barton tells a story about herself and how she learned, quoting Wayne Muller, "if we do not allow for a rythm of rest in our overly busy lives,  illnesses become our sabbath.  Our pneumonias, our cancers, our heart attacks, our accidents, create sabbath for us." 

 

Obviously (but maybe not too obviously!) not all of our accidents and illnesses are indicators that we are not paying attention to our real needs, but it is worth considering whether the function of an illness or accident in our lives is to give us a break that we have been unable to give ourselves.  People simply do not feel as guilty or uneasy about doing nothing when they can't!  At least I know I don't!

 

One last thought for today.  Isn't it interesting that in order to reach us with His gracious love and freeing truth, God took on limitations.  In order to accomplish his divine purposes, Jesus took on a human, therefore limited, body.  In order to love well, Jesus took on limitations. How could that be a good thing?  Yes, good question.  Think about it and see what conclusions you come to about your limitations!