This week has been unusually busy. I have taught several classes and facilitated a roundtable business discussion with three folks who are thinking about working together. My role was to determine if they were compatible and whether their goals and styles would work well together.
Then there was Tuesday evening at church helping set up for a volunteer appreciation dinner at which Janet and I were also attendees. It was a great time but it did take its toll on us. Oh, and I almost forgot that last Saturday morning we worked putting rice, soy, vitamins and dried veggies together in plastic bags that were then sealed and boxed for shipment to Nicaragua to fight third world hunger. During the day, we were part of the effort that readied about 40,000 meals for shipment down south. Our shift packed almost 22,000 meals or just under 3750 bags of food. It felt great to be part of such an effort.
Last night we attended a choir concert at the high school that featured our grandson and several hundred of his classmates. Once again, a good time but I didn’t have much margin for my ministry work this week. Usually, I write a preliminary draft post on Tuesday or Wednesday but with my busy schedule, that just didn’t happen this week. With two Bible studies to work on today, it didn’t leave much time to write extensively. On top of all of that, this afternoon I received an emergency call to perform a wedding ceremony tomorrow at 1:00 pm. The officiant who was to do the service cancelled last minute – by email… I felt sad for the couple so I decided to help out and do the wedding. But it is more than an hour away and I have to finish up the ceremony in the morning.
So, I am reminded that I just need to cut this short tonight and realize that God, and hopefully, all of you, will understand. The Scripture is pretty clear that there is a Sabbath rest. And it doesn’t have to be on Sunday… I am claiming it tonight…
Our verse for tonight is from the letter to the Hebrews. Although the Bible is silent on the authorship of this book, I personally believe that it was Paul who wrote this letter, somewhat famous for its hall of fame of faith in chapter 11. Tonight, we don’t go that far into the book. Paul, or some other anonymous author tells us in Hebrews 4:9-11, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.”
My encouragement this evening is that God understands when we are tired – we all get that way from time to time. Jesus also lets us know that His load is light and we can easily be yoked to Him. My prayer is that we should all recognize when we need to back off for a day or two and just rest in His strength. That’s what I am doing tonight… Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…