Breaking Free to Rest and Reflect
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010Arthur Waskow, Director of the Shalom Center, said once, “In Jewish life, Shabbat is the time when you stop doing something - you study Torah, you sing, you dance, you celebrate, and you reflect on what the previous six days have been. If there were a single piece of Jewish wisdom that was most important to impart to the human race at this very moment in history, it would be the importance of Shabbat. I mean the generally profound sense of pausing to be, to reflect and to break the addiction of working, producing, making, inventing.”
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Further he adds, “Artists have said to me, ‘There’s a moment in painting when you’re laying brush stroke after brush stroke and each one’s beautiful and each one enhances the painting. Then comes the moment when you put one more brush stroke on and it would seem that brush stroke was just as beautiful as any one before it, but suddenly you have ruined the painting.’”
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Waskow explains, “You’ve got to know when to stop, when to catch your breath and say ‘Whoosh! This one’s over! I’ll put up another canvas. But in the meantime, I have to pause long enough to digest what I’ve done. Otherwise, I destroy it.’”
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The church I serve allows ministers to take a sabbatical leave after seven years of employment. I’m halfway through my ninth year and will be taking a sabbatical this summer. During this time, I will be away from my usual ministry duties and alternating work and rest. I have a couple of learning goals - work that is difficult to tend to during a normal schedule of ministry. I also plan to exercise and rest as well, heeding the advice of my many colleagues who’ve done this at some point, remembering that part of the work of sabbatical periods is to tend to the overwrought needs of ministry.
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I remember reading an article that Pastor Buckner Fanning wrote a while back, recalling the ancient tradition concerning the Apostle John who was pastor in Ephesus and his hobby of raising pigeons. It is said on one occasion a person passed his house as he was returning from hunting and saw Pastor John playing with one of his birds.
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The man gently chided the pastor for spending his time so frivolously. John looked at the hunter’s bow and remarked that the string was loose. “Yes, I always loosen the string when it’s not in use. If it stayed tight all the time it would loose its power.”
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John responded, “That’s exactly what I’m doing right now. I’m relaxing the bow of my mind so I will be better able to shoot the arrows of divine truth.”
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There’s a deep truth that all of us need to heed regarding the incessant demands on our time, our addiction to hurry and our need to be busy. Hobbies, vacations and wholesome recreation are vital to a well-balanced Christian life, for all will lose our effectiveness if we keep the bows of life tightly strung for too long.
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These past six weeks, my pastoral colleague’s been out recuperating from her recent surgery. I watched as she tried to disengage from her work and from all of us in order to rest and heal. It’s obvious being away is not that easy. Feel free to write me but don’t expect me to answer.
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Awhile back, I received a brief note from Marv Knox, Editor of the Baptist Standard, the state paper for Baptists in Texas. Marv wrote me about the time Willie Morris and Eudora Welty went for a drive, a habit they tried to do on occasion as a way for them to talk while they explored the country roads outside Jackson, Mississippi. Eudora was way up in years by them, and as they were driving along, Willie turned down an unfamiliar country lane. Welty asked, “Where are we going?” Morris replied “It’s called the Road to Paradise. I thought we’d see where it leads.” To which she replied, “We’d be fools not to!”
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On our journey through life, let’s agree we’re going to pause every now and then to smell the flowers. Let’s agree we’ll turn down the throttle of our many obligations to enjoy one another and savor our friendships. Let’s agree we’ll try to stop the incessant hum of the world so we can pay attention to the footsteps of God that are right under our feet believing God may be leading us on some grand adventure we’re too busy to notice.
