Do you ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day and that you are falling behind? Do you feel like you are going 90 miles an hour? Life can seem crazy and out of control at times. Our culture sends the message that busier is better and that if we say “no” to something or rest we are deemed “lazy.” I just finished a bible study called “Breathe” by Priscilla Shirer. The premise of the bible study was that we need to create margins in our life to stop, to cease, stop striving and resist the urge to continue, which is the Sabbath principle. I have always viewed “Sabbath” as something negative, a list of rules what you could or couldn’t do. I knew a girl in high school that couldn’t do anything on Sunday because it was the “Sabbath.” We thought she and her family were weird.
I have since come to understand that the sabbath is a gift. I had also forgotten that it is the 4th of the 10 commandments: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. God gave the Israelites the commandments after that had been freed from Pharoah in Egypt as his slaves. Priscilla shared in her book, “Back in Egypt, the slaves of Israel had never been told not to work. Reprieve was a foreign concept to their culture. They had never been given the privilege to stop and rest, and had certainly never been given the opportunity to decline a command given by their superiors. The Israelites had never developed the discipline of declining. They had been trained to acquiesce and comply. But now, the Sabbath would help them remember they were free. Free to say “no.” Free to rest. Free to no longer be controlled by that which they were previously mastered. Free to enjoy their relationship with Yahweh.” (p. 44)
Sabbath was a gift to the people to show them that God loved them not based on what they could do for him but simply because he had chosen them and they were his. It was a time for the people to show God their gratitude and praise him. Sabbath says “I am not in control, God is. I am going to take the time to celebrate him.”
Priscilla used a phrase that jumped off the page to me, “the speed limit of your soul.” We live in a culture of doing stuff, to-do-lists and being busy doing good things. We worship business. Resting isn’t optional and it shouldn’t be when “you have time” because that usually doesn’t come especially if you are a parent of little children.
These are some of the things I have done in my margins lately:
Are you running over or under your speed limit? The speed limit of our soul is personal. You may be able to go at a different speed than me. Our speed limits can be different in seasons of life, like having a baby, hosting the Thanksgiving dinner, and working on your master’s degree. We need to learn to say “no.” Saying “yes” to every commitment and request can max out your soul speed limit. Make some margins in your schedule. How you spend your time shows your priorities. If we go too fast too long we create stress and anxiety. On the other hand, if your speed limit is too slow for too long you become lethargic, lazy and don’t finish projects. We can’t enjoy life or our things if we are always moving at breakneck speed.
Jesus was busy. People followed him all over making demands of him. Yet he took the time to break away and be with his Father and talk to him. God rested after he created the world not because he was tired from creating but to show he was sovereign over all. When we run on overload and exhaustion we are saying that we are in control not God.
Creating margin in your life isn’t just in your schedule. It can be in your stuff too. If we keep collecting or buying or wanting more and more of something we can spend so much time trying to maintain, we can’t keep up. Keeping more, we’re actually left with less. My house is too big for just one person and the upkeep is taking way too much of my time. I have been purging and making changes in the house to help me feel not so buried underneath. For the past three years two of my widow friends and I have had a garage sale. I think this was our last year. I am sure I could find more stuff to get rid of here but there isn’t quite as much stuff as before!
Just breathe. There is a song titled that by Johnny Diaz. “Come and rest at my feet and just be…….take it in, fill your lungs. It’s the peace of God that overcomes, just breathe. So let your weary spirit rest. Lay down what’s good and find what’s best. Just breathe……”
Take time to cease running around and running on empty. Resist the urge to continue. Purge your stuff. Find what’s best. Just breathe. Sit at the feet of God. Acknowledge that he is Sovereign. Give him thanks and praise.
Just breathe………
On the journey,
Trish