OK, I am mixing my metaphors, but I don’t really care, I’m pretty mixed up this week as it is.

I got to church early Monday morning before anyone else had arrived.  The tent from the garage sale was still up, with odds and ends lying around.  There was new tile in the entry way (great job Bob and Mike!), and a wonderful “welcome back” banner covering my office door, with streamers and balloons to boot!  (Oh, and thanks for the star shaped glitter, that’s still popping up in unexpected places.)  It felt as if I had hardly been away, like stepping out of the wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia; after being gone for a long time, finding out that you had never really left.  Yeah, kind of like a time-warp, Twilight Zone kind of feeling.

Yet, I have been gone for over 2 1/2 months, so it was inevitable and expected, that when I stepped out of my sabbatical “wardrobe” I’d step right into the rapids.  It has been like one minute walking through a peaceful meadow, under gently swaying trees, and then plunging into a raging river, trying to catch your breath while being swept along by the rapids downstream.

I’m not complaining at all.  It was time to get back to work.  Kind of like looking forward to school starting in the doldrums of summer, not for the classes, but to reconnect with your friends.  OK, I was and am a geek, I looked forward to the classes too, and I still do!

My wondering is about why we sometimes avoid taking time off, getting away from it all, or even weekly observing the Sabbath.  Could it be that the jolt and juxtaposition is too great for us, and not worth the pain and effort?  There is always a price to pay, isn’t there?  Tons of email, phone messages, mail to open, too many things to catch up with.  Why try to get out of the rat race for a time, if it is only going to hurt worse trying to get back in?  Or, could it be that we don’t want to face the dissonance of the world of God’s Sabbath with the “real world”?  

When you really listen to Jesus’ teachings, especially in the Sermon on the Mount and in the parables, you realize he his hitting head on the clash between the “real world” we all live in, which apostle Paul calls “the world of the flesh,” and the world that Jesus calls “the Kingdom of God.”  It’s the same world, the difference is in how we see, think, and live in the world as God made it and wants it yet to become.  

Are we living as children of the light, or children of the dark?  I have to be honest with myself, and admit I’m caught in between.  It makes me sad and makes me worried, however, when we get the two confused, and we only live in the dark.  I hope I don’t too quickly forget this sabbatical time that was spent for the most part walking in the light of God’s grace, peace, and renewal.  I am so very grateful for that gift.  Now to hold onto it, keep my eyes open, and live each day walking in the light and along the Way.