Rest is important.
We live in a world where rest is countercultural because we worship at the altar of busyness.

And — if you look busy, you look important.

Especially when our worth is determined by what we’ve produced so far.

The commandment to take Sabbath is, really, nothing more than to stop and understand that you’re worth isn’t based on what you have produced but that your worth comes from the fact that you bear the imago dei. 

At an earlier point in my life, I believed that Sabbath meant doing absolutely nothing. 
I’d spend that time vegging out on video games, movies, TV and so forth.
Perhaps in that season of life, that was what I needed.

But nowadays, Sabbath for me is doing something that gives me (or often restores my) life; something that gives me joy; something that reminds me who I am and whose I am.
Which, for this season (at least when school was in session) has been going to a coffee shop, work on non-church related writing, and reading a book. Then going to lunch with my wife (usually somewhere in Houston) all the while nervously counting down the hours until school is out and playing rock, paper, scissors to see who has to go pick up the Son.

When we just work, work, work, work, work, work, work, and work, work, work, work, werk, werk, werk… we start losing a grip on our humanity. What difference are we than a robot at that point?

And not a single soul lies on their death bed wishing they worked more. 

This is just to say that I’m out and about for a little break.
And if I’m honest, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

For a while now, writing has been incredibly difficult — especially writing a sermon. It’s been something that I had to force myself to do — which further feeds the monster of procrastination.

The joy that writing usually brings me slowly turned into a chore.
My keyboard has taken a brunt of the frustration.
Type a sentence. Delete. Type the same sentence. Delete it once more. Type a new sentence. Delete. Retype the original deleted sentence. Delete once more. Give out a groan of frustration. Type a whole set of words that don’t make sense together. Delete. Type random letters. Delete.
Go on a rabbit trail of Youtube videos.
Type the original sentence… work on something else and come back to it later…

And quite surprisingly, I can actually pinpoint the time I started to feel like that (I suppose it’s one of the benefits of keeping a daily journal). Usually, you just lower your head and keep on chugging, hoping to work yourself out of the funk (and usually, one can never get yourself out of the work funk by working more….)
But I know myself well enough to know that signs of fatigue, weariness, and simply just being tired of the routine of church are ever so present.

So, it will be good getting away.

And we’ll see what life is like when we come back to the real world.