25 Jul Glad to be Back!

Unless you have been around Mosaic for more than a few weeks…you may not know me.

Just kidding! Carrie and I and our family have returned from being off for the past month, we had a great time and are really grateful for all of you and all your encouragement and support for our doing something like this. I’m especially thankful to our amazing staff which kept the church moving forward during my absence, as well as for those individuals who preached while I was gone.

I don’t know if you have ever had the privilege of being off from work for more than a couple of weeks at a time, but if you have, you may have discovered a couple of things: not only is it a great blessing, but the weeks leading up to it are surprisingly challenging! They are challenging because I/ a person was/is laboring to think ahead and prepare for what the absence of work will mean for those around him or her, and sometimes that preparatory process can be exhausting—and yet, if we are going to rest, it is crucial.

If you are familiar at all with practicing Jews, you know that they have a rigid practice of Sabbath observance, or what they call the Shabbat. Shabbat begins on Friday at sundown and continues for the next 24 hours. In those precious hours leading up to it, a household must prepare, on a weekly basis, for not being able to cook by cooking extensively in that period leading up to Shabbat. Plans must be made for socializing on foot, as cars cannot be driven (burning fuel is the same as expending energy), clothes must be washed and ready and even the thermostat must be set (no adjustments are permitted).

Now, when you think of all that a Jewish person does to be able to rest, and then you read the words of Hebrews 4, I hope that a connection is made for you:

9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest…”

The writer of this, writing to first century Jewish converts, knew something that we should know: Ironically, and even counter-intuitively, it takes work to be able to rest.

It took me, personally, weeks of work ahead of time to be able to rest well.

And it takes work to be able to enter the real rest of God–not just a weekly day off, but the rest beneath the rest, the “R.E.M. of the soul.”

That kind of work looks like labor to create a space with God in our lives. It takes work to carve out space for God in a culture that is increasingly oriented towards a 24/7 work and entertainment cycle- which, if you believe the commandment about resting (and I do), if we get caught up in that vicious cycle, it will destroy us. Our bodies, our health and our relationships will break down if we fail to rest physically.

And our spiritual self, our connection to God, and our experience of the divine through Jesus Christ, will shrivel, fade and be lost if we fail to do the work necessary in our lives to carve out space for time with God. 

Let me encourage you: make every effort to enter the rest of God. 

Worship with your fellow Christian.
Make time to read God’s word.
Make time to meditate and to pray.

The Sabbath-rest of God is both a gift and a promise.

It remains for the people of God brave enough to enter that space by faith.

Let’s go there, together.

I’m glad to be back with you, and I can’t wait for all that the rest of the summer and fall will bring at Mosaic. I’ll be finishing up our series in Romans this week and giving you a sneak peek as to what’s ahead in the month to come.

Much love to you,

Morgan