Where Is The Pause? Where Is The Reflection?

My friend Moses Masitha was with us on Sunday—speaking at NWLife. He continued in our “Rhythm is Gonna Get Ya” series (which is about how our repeated practices/rhythms shape and form our lives) with a sermon on “Practicing the Rhythm of Sabbath Rest.”

I loved what he shared—and I’d like to share some of the notes that I took from his message…

In the Old Testament, we read how God’s people cried out because of the great burden they were under: they were slaves in Egypt, forced into continual, non-stop production.

Their worth was inherently tied to their productivity.

And God sent Moses to liberate them.

“I want them to be free.”

Moses leads them out. God gives them instructions, commands… because after 400 years of living in Egypt, they needed to be de-programmed.

Their worth had been measured by their ability to produce. They lived among people who worshiped things made by their own hands. And the ways of this culture had crept in… God’s own people followed these same practices.

So, in order to deprogram them, God gives the 10 commandments. The first three commands are about our vertical relationship with God (no other gods before me, don’t worship things made by your own hands, don’t trivialize the Lord’s name).

Next, we have this instruction to keep the Sabbath—to have a day of rest in order to be refreshed every week.

And this is followed by six commands concerning our horizontal relationships with others (do not kill, covet, steal, etc.)

In Exodus 31.12-17, Sabbath rest is not only commanded, but it also comes with a warning of death for those who do not keep the Sabbath.

Question: What dies when we have no rest?

Our relationships suffer when we have no rest. Vertical relationship: with God. Horizontal relationships: with family, friends, co-workers, etc.

But a healthy soul, coming from a place of rest, can interact with others in a positive way.

God doesn’t overwork. The One who holds the universe in his hands is not a workaholic. God created the heavens and earth in six days and on the seventh day he rested. God rested and was refreshed.

If God rests and is refreshed, how much more do we need to keep the Sabbath?

We need to keep two things in mind:

1) I am not God. The weight of the world does not rest on my shoulders. While I pause for rest, life and the world will carry on.

2) God is God and I can trust Him. Anxiety over productivity or social standing isn’t necessary because I trust, not in myself, but in God.

Although we are not slaves like the Israelites in Egypt—being forced to labor against our will—we have become slaves to consumption, productivity, and finding our worth in social standing and upward mobility.

Life without pause is slavery. Life without rest produces death.

We go from emotional high to emotional high. Constant stimulation. Noise. Demand. Pressure. Productivity.

Be careful! Living from emotional high to emotional high is damaging to your soul.

The unrested soul is an unhealthy soul—moving from one conflict to another.

And death takes place in relationships when we haven’t had rest.

It’s an issue of anxiety –vs- trust.

We overwork because we are worried. Driven by social status, our lives are filled with anxiety.

And yet, what we really need is rest, pause, and time for reflection.

We need to keep the Sabbath.

I can prove to you that we all need this rest…

Facebook.

The very fact that you’ve seen “I’m taking a Facebook hiatus,” or “I’ll be unplugging from Facebook for a while” announcements is evidence that we all need this rest. Maybe you’ve felt this before, or maybe you’ve taken your own Facebook break. It comes from the awareness that something unhealthy is going on. Too much noise. If I don’t take a break, I’m gonna hate people.

Here’s the deal: this kind of “Facebook hiatus” usually comes at a point of crisis. It’s an emergency. But God has instructed us to practice the regular rhythm of rest, pause, and reflection. Sabbath rest, unplugging, taking a hiatus is to be our practice—not an emergency measure.

*     *     *

One of my favorite things in the message was when Moses had us get together with someone else and read aloud Matthew 6.25-33.

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 *     *     *

Each week in this series, we’ve given a take home practice – something to try at home, as a rhythm or regular practice. Here’s what Moses gave us on Sunday:

Come up with at least two new practices you can introduce to your family (or self) to help keep out the noise and relentless demands of the world. Write those ideas down. Try them!

 *     *     *

On a lighter, more comical note, SNL’s “Target Post-Election Commercial” offers a safe place to get away from all the noise…

And here’s a video of Moses speaking in one of the Sunday morning services at NWLife on “Practicing the Rhythm of Sabbath Rest”