“Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it HOLY…on the seventh day I [the Lord] rested.  That is why I, the Lord, blessed the Sabbath Day and made it holy.” – God (Exodus 20: 8 & 11)

Evidently even God needs to rest, which is a pretty profound thought to ponder.  So, if God needs a little rest, a snooze, and some time off on a regular basis, isn’t it great that the Lord God Almighty thought it would be pretty neat if we’d do the same.  Maybe Yahweh knows that we need rest more than we will admit?  

“Shabbat” literally means to STOP.  

Stopping is something we resent and try to disregard any chance we get.  We run stop signs and stop lights.  And, oh, don’t we love getting stopped in traffic!  Stopping is a sign of weakness, failure even.  ”Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow, don’t stop, it’ll soon be here,” or so the song goes.  I hate to stop.  Just give me some more coffee and I’ll keep going.

But if we don’t stop, we will never find rest, the kind of rest that God needs and wants to share with us.  It also turns out that the first step to listening to God is to stop.  Perhaps finding rest in God and truly listening to God are close to the same thing.  Staring later this week, and for the duration of this gift and blessing of sabbatical time, I hope to find out for myself.  I’ll keep you posted.