Sabbath

Last night I went to plug my cell phone into the charger and discovered I had spent the entire day missing phone calls!  It seems I had inadvertently left the ringer "off" all day, so every time friends or family or (twice, my boss) called, all they heard from me was my outgoing voicemail message.

At first I was mortified - especially to miss the important work-related calls.  But then as I reflected on what a great day I'd had, full of sunshine and relaxation, time with my daughter and time with myself, the cell phone faded into insignificance.  It turned out to be a day of Sabbath - a (not so intentional) day of rest and renewal.  It was a whole day without email or telephone calls, without reading anything for work or doing anything related to house-keeping.  It was a day when the Holy Spirit had a better than average chance of getting through the clutter of my normal days.  My daughter and I shared a special breakfast and lingered over her prayer of gratitude.  My puppy and I soaked up the sunshine while he ran off a little bit of his constant energy.  My creativity came alive as I began making invitations for my mom's upcoming birthday bash.  My body responded in kind as I swam my fastest half mile (38 laps) since surgery in March.  And in the evening I laughed aloud at the movie which transported us to another time and place altogether.

Sabbath.  We all need it, whether we recognize it or not.  We all need those days without busy-ness, those times for rest for our spirits as well as our bodies.  Because Sabbath can turn what feels like "never enough time" into time enough.  Sabbath can take the limits of our lives and expand them, making space for all of who we are and all we hope to become.  Author Danna Schaper writes, "Sabbath is time spent remembering what time is for."

I like that ... because I suspect when you get right down to it, time is for much more than cell phone calls, and even more than email!