Seize the Day

As part of my commitment to New Monasticism, I have vowed to try to keep Sabbath. Since Sundays will be a "work" day in terms of playing for services and doing other missional work. Fridays though, I don't have anything planned. So I have decided to make Fridays my Sabbath. Fridays will be my day for rest, reflection, restoration and re-creation.

I heard a song recently that I used to love in my teenage years and it helped me press on during the difficult days. The chorus seems perfect for this beautiful fall day: 

Seize the day, seize whatever you can

Cause life slips away just like hourglass sand

Seize the day, pray for grace from God's hand

So that nothing will stand in your way

Seize the day.

Sabbath is a day of rest. I accidently slept in this morning, missing morning prayer all together. I completely did not hear my alarm! While I consider the rhythm of morning and evening prayer to be an important rhythm to uphold, it did seem fitting that today of all days I should sleep in - the first true Sabbath that I set aside. I feel rested and able to tackle this day before me. I will seize this day of rest!

Sabbath is a day of reflection. I have a morning routine of studying Scripture and praying that with the busy-ness of the past few days, it has been ignored. But today I joyfully spent time with God. I recently was challenged by preacher Tim Keller that Christ should be my friend and God my father - Beings that I want to spend time with, that I delight in talking to or listening. Tim Keller also talked about silence being a sign of good friendship - when two can sit together in silence without awkwardness but rather comfort and just relishing in each other's company. God is more than father, he is my lover and I have been challenged to adore him and seek his company as the beloved. Today is also a day of reflecting on the past week and pondering the next week, reviewing where I see God - like Ignatius' prayer of examin.   So far today has been a prayerful day, and I am enjoying it. So I will seize this day of reflection!

Sabbath is a day of restoration. As you can probably figure out from my last note, this has been a difficult week where my heart is heavy with family issues. I am working hard to understand, overcome and deal with these issues, and it is honestly like a full time job in and of itself. But today, I rest and allow my heart to regain its strength to face another week. Today I have felt peace which passeth all understanding. The issues remain - nothing has changed since yesterday. But I feel held by the Holy Spirit. So I will seize this day of restoration!

Sabbath is also a day of re-creation and rejuvenation and play. The activity that brings me the greatest joy is cooking and baking. So today I am spending my day in the kitchen and just enjoying working with different foods in a prayerful way, giving thanks to God for the freedom and time to play and to do what I love to do. I'm baking bread from scratch and making various salads for dinner. I made fresh pesto with the basil from the garden. We are having guests for dinner and I am thoroughly enjoying preparing a table of plenty for tonight's supper. So I will seize this day of re-creation.

I give thanks for the command to keep Sabbath. It is a step towards wholeness. So I will seize this day.