Difficult Seasons

One of the books I’ve been reading is a commentary by Edward Fudge on the New Testament book Hebrews.  While scholarly, it reads more like a devotional book, which is what I’m using it for.

Last night I was reading the portion of the book that deals with Hebrews Chapter 4, which talks about entering the Rest of God. The point that jumped out at me was that we enter this rest only when our work is done.  Just like God worked for six days creating and then rested on the seventh day, our work will be ongoing until it’s done and then we will enter God’s “Sabbath” rest.

Perhaps the reason this jumped out at me is because several friends are struggling with seemingly unending times of difficulty.  John Dobbs wrote about the stormy days that he and his family have been going through.  In addition, just before I was reading Hebrews last night, I had read a note from a friend about a new difficulty their family was having to deal with — on top of other ongoing challenges.  And just to be honest, I’m a little worn out myself by some of the challenges we have been dealing with.

So here are some thoughts that occurred to me as I reflected on this portion of Hebrews:

1.  This life can be difficult.  We can look back and see how God has gotten us through difficult times in the past, and know that He will do the same in the present and the future.  But these difficulties wear us out.  We get tired — physically, mentally, and emotionally.

2.  Sometimes God relieves us of a difficulty.  A week ago, the doctors had given up hope for John’s father-in-law.  This week he’s at home recuperating.  My dad doesn’t require chemo or radiation for his bladder cancer.  You have similar stories you could tell.

3.  Sometimes God doesn’t remove the difficulty and challenge from our lives.  Our daughter Sara continues to suffer from a number of medical conditions that can be temporarily disabling, in spite of fervent prayer by so many.  You have similar stories in your life.

Our tiredness from dealing with these ongoing difficulties and challenges, however, does serve to make the Rest of God seem so much more desirable.

Rest is a wonderful thing to look forward to after our work here is finished.

Yesterday and today I did some very intentional things aimed at making me feel better.

Yesterday I shot photos of birds and spent time test-driving Adobe Lightroom 2.0.  Photography is something that exercises my creative side, and something I’m working on getting better at.  Part of getting better is simplifying my post processing workflow while at the same time being able to effectively process the photos.  It was a great day of focus and learning.  And yes, I do like Lightroom.

Today I did yardwork all day.  I mowed and edged two yards both with large back yards.  It was a day of physical work, where the main focus was steering the mower and guiding the trimmer.  I enjoyed working with good tools, and being able to see the difference my work made.

And I feel better.  Emotionally.  And Physically — except for some soreness.

Sometimes Sabbath needs focused learning and even focused work to provide rest.

I don’t know about you, but saying no is hard for me.

There are lots of reasons why saying no is hard for me.

• I like helping people.
• I like doing new things.
• I like being liked.
• I’m not very good at estimating how much I can get done in the time available.

But yesterday morning, I said no three times.  Two times were to myself.  One was to a friend.

It was a morning when there was simply more to do than could be fit into the time available. So I made myself stop and sit down, and spend a few minutes thinking about what was going on and why.

Then instead of going to a meeting I really wanted to attend to show support for the folks there, I sent an email expressing my support, and apologizing for not being able to be there. Interestingly, there were several responses from others who were not able to attend the meeting either.  So at least some of us who wanted to but were not there had a conversation.

I also sent an email to a friend who had invited me to be a part of a fun project that I would really enjoy doing, and told her I really just couldn’t.  And I made myself defer a couple of things I wanted to accomplish yesterday morning.

Someone posted something last week that said, “You have to say no to say yes.”  I’m still trying to learn that lesson.  It’s part of working on observing the principle of Sabbath.

How I Feel When I'm Tired

My personality changes when I’m tired.

I do a pretty good job of hiding that change from most people.  But my family, who knows me best, picks up on it.  Mostly because I get quiet, distracted, and sometimes seem grumpy.

When I’m tired, little things bother me, things that otherwise wouldn’t.

Like the aggressive way people were driving this afternoon on my drive home.  Their lack of patience becomes my lack of patience.  When I’m rested, I’m better able to deal with traffic, to stay calm.

When I’m tired, I have a harder time being optimistic, being upbeat.  It’s easier to get down on myself.  To get down on others.

I don’t like this personality change.  Fortunately there’s a way to prevent or at least minimize it’s happening.  I have to have my rest.

It’s the reason for Sabbath.

I took a Sabbath today –  a day of rest, a day of re-creation, a day of not doing things I had to do or needed to do.

I don’t do that often enough for my own good.  And as a result I pay the price.

The God who created us knows us better than we know ourselves.  He told his people Israel to take a Sabbath weekly.  And he gave them regulations about how to spend the day.

While we’re not bound by the regulations of the Jewish law, we’re foolish if we don’t learn from it.  For some reason, Sabbath is one of the things we’ve generally chosen to forget, to not learn from.

So we go and go until we drop.  Until the stress builds to the breaking point.  Then we crash.

God’s idea is simply better.  Once a week spend a day of refreshment, of re-creation.  You’ll stay charged up.  You won’t crash.

I had one of those crashes last week.  A migraine that came on Wednesday morning, that came back Wednesday night, that bounced back mid-day Thursday, and left me feeling like I’d been run over by a truck through the weekend.  Migraines are my body’s way of reminding me that I’m not resting and recharging.

So today I took that Sabbath, and I’m again resolving to do so weekly.

So what did I do today?  I went to Houston Camera Exchange, an old fashioned camera store where a knowledgeable person waits on you, puts functioning equipment in your hands to try out, and even tests the stuff you buy to make sure it is working before you leave the store.  I bought a new lens for my birthday, and spent the rest of the afternoon taking photos.  Recharging, re-creating stuff.

If you’d like to do some enjoyable reading about Sabbath, get a copy of The Rest of God by Mark Buchannan.  I’ll be rereading it soon myself.