H and I woke up in a hotel room last Sunday, ate room service with his mother at a conference table, and packed up our dirty laundry from the week. I spent the majority of my Sabbath in the car. We sat in silence for the first hour, watching the trees blur while our weary hearts warmed to the sun streaming in through the windows.
We discovered the secret to making biscuits on NPR. I read snippets from Love Does out loud to H. In between dozing off and private conversations with God, I made up stories in my mind about all those shacks out my window in the middle of abandoned patches of weedy fields. For four hours I thought about what I’ve taken for granted about love.
Sometimes you need to be trapped in a car to have Sabbath.
It’s really not as much about where you are or what you do, as it is about harnessing your heart and mind around the One chasing you with abandon all week. He’ll wait for that moment when you stop long enough to recognize he’s been there all along.
And when you do stop, all the questions fogging up the mirror in your mind, they will melt away. And your reflection will become crystal clear in the countenance of His unfathomable grace.
I once heard somebody say that God had closed a door on an opportunity they had hope for. But I’ve always wondered if, when we want to do something that we know is right and good, God places that desire deep in our hearts because He wants it for us and it honors Him. Maybe there are times when we think a door has been closed and, instead of misinterpreting the circumstances, God wants us to kick it down. Or perhaps just sit outside long enough until somebody tells us we can come in. ~Love Does by Bob Goff
Interested in joining the Surrendering to Sabbath Society, a growing sisterhood of nearly seventy that say, “Yes, I’m all in”? Send me an email: shelly@redemptionsbeauty.com.
Links around the web worth a click:
Barbara Brown Taylor on Sabbath – we initiated Redemptions Beauty Book Club with her book Leaving Church last year.
52 Sunday Suppers – Kristin shares some fond memories of Sunday dinner and her pot roast is “the way pot roast should taste” according to H.
How Midrash Can Change Your Spiritual Life Forever by Margaret Feinberg
What Do You Need to See In Your Life Today by Holley Gerth
Holey, Wholly, Holy by Kris Camealy – a free e-book for Lent when you sign up for Kris’s newsletter.
And just a whisper here: I found out today that I lost hundreds of my WordPress.com followers in the migration of this new website. I would be ever so grateful for your continued presence in this community by joining through email or a preferred RSS feed. Thank you.
