Welcome back!
I know, you may be saying, “But I didn’t go anywhere!” You didn’t but I did. Over the last year, blogging has become like a hermit in a cave. Easter, though, is a season of resurrection and it is time again for me to resurrect The Milk Can. The Milk Can is a regular blog to supplement our ministry and leader development at Hope Church in Galesburg. I know that many of you, though, don’t attend our church. To you, I give the privilege of listening in. Your feedback and comments help to refine and make us all so much better.
In the Christian church, Easter is often a season of celebration and chaos. Many of us spend the weeks leading up to this Holy Week in frantic preparation. Then Sunday comes, we celebrate with friends and family. Ours was great! This was one of the best Easters for me personally in all my years of ministry. (Much of the credit for the success goes to the members of our worship team whose week in and week out dedication is easily taken for granted.) Then Monday comes and you know what happens? We keep our foot on the throttle, it may not be Easter anymore but another Sunday is coming and all those things we put off while we were getting ready for Easter now demand we address them. This may describe the reality of pastors but it is not really any different than the reality of many of our lives. Americans are running with our foot jammed on the throttle we are busy and stressed. It’s become a badge of honor for us to say we are “busy.” We fear being thought of as lazy. Full throttle living is taking its toll on us. In a recent article in the New York Times, “55 percent of adults said they had experienced stress during ‘a lot of the day’ prior” and “About 45 percent of the Americans surveyed said they had felt ‘a lot’ of worry the day before.”
At creation, God established cycles and seasons to life. Even if we didn’t choose to rest or take a Sabbath, nature forced us to rest. When the sun went down, the work had to stop. When the winter storms blew the pace of life slowed. To get to the next town over might take a day’s journey on foot. Even a generation ago work was slowed. When we walked out of our offices the work stayed where it was until the next morning. Now it follows us home in our pockets on our phones. TV stations played the national anthem and went off the air. Businesses closed at night and often on Sunday as well.
Those days are long gone. But our need for Sabbath rest remains. Today we must choose to change our lives and live differently.
Finding the rest we need begins with a question: “What is it that only you can do?”
Your answer to the question will focus priorities and establish the places of healing and reconciliation that Sabbath can bring.
At Hope, we are diving deep into a Summer of Rest as we explore the applications of Sabbath for each of our lives. Over the weeks ahead The Milk Can will give further insights as well.
Blessings,
Stephen