| This 'source of life' continues to bring us back to the life we have as a body - in the flesh and in the midst of all things. After six working days, people are to rest, and that means not intervening in nature, either nature outside ourselves or our own nature within. On this day of divine rest, men and women will stop looking at nature from the angle of cost-benefit calculations. They will 'let it be' as God's creation, and will enjoy it. On this day of the week, the nature which human beings process and utilize should be allowed to breathe and to come itself again. Our mental and purposeful concentration on reason and will is relaxed. On this day the mind or spirit can return again to the body which it had made its instrument. The body becomes the temple in which God's Spirit can live and rest. I find it interesting that this day of rest is considered a time when the body is so much of the focus. The body must rest and in that real physical resting comes the wholeness of the day. I wonder if that is why new ideas and fresh insights come when we allow the body to chill a bit. I know that a good, long, walk at the beach or even in the morning can be refreshing to my whole life. There is no agenda - no getting ahead - no need for a calendar - no 'what's next? There is only the walk. When I walk in the morning, I recently switched my music from listening right through an album to putting the ipod on 'shuffle.' I've noticed that it allows me to let go of what is coming up next. Have you ever noticed that once you listen to a CD a number of times, you actually start singing the next song before it begins. Not with the shuffle. You get one at a time. You don't know if your are coming to the end of a CD - for there is no end - there is only now - the fullness of now. I wonder if that is part of sabbath rest?! Connection: Maybe it would be a good exercise to shuffle all the way through a day. Spirit of Creation, we know that we can rest in you and find there a peace that will bring us back to life when we are exhausted and overextended. Remind us that your peace is eternally available so that the exhaustion does not overwhelm us. Amen. |
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