Lingering by the River

Any parent understands...rules have a lot to do with love.


I don't set boundaries for my children because I am a tyrant...behind each rule is a protection...something that is meant for their health, sanity, learning, or peace.


Anyone who has BEEN a parent, or who has HAD a parent...we get this.


Interesting that when it comes to the "rules" set out in the pages of Scripture, we sometimes forget this.


There are something like 613 commandments in the Old Testament (it depends on how you count)...some of them, like the "big 10," we know well...but many of them are part of what is called the "Purity codes."


These laws, however, were meant for the people's health and safety...and breaking them often had consequences...not because God was punishing the people, but because the negative things that happened were the natural outcomes of their poor choices.


If my children ignore the rules about "no candy right before bed," they will have an upset stomach as they sleep and cavities in their teeth...not because their tyrant father is punishing them, but because that rule is there to protect them from those things.


"If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea." 
Isaiah 48:18 (NIV)


As I read this passage, one commandment sticks in my mind...one that we knowingly and regularly break...and we suffer the consequences of breaking it...


...the command to "remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy."


It says something deep and profound about God that one of 10 most important rules given to us is "TAKE TIME FOR REST!"


Yet, of all the commandments, this one feels like the one most often broken or completely ignored.


We know better. We can get one more thing done. Productivity and busy-ness is the ultimate goal.


A few years ago, all the pastors of Slinger (the town where my church is) banded together and wrote a letter to the school district, imploring them to restrict Sunday sports. This was not because we were afraid of losing ground with parents who are forced to choose...ultimately, the case we made is that Sabbath time, time for rest and rejuvenation, is good for the community as a whole. For those families who want to use that Sabbath time to attend our churches, all well and good...but even for those families who don't attend a church...it is good for the community to have some notion of a day of rest.


This is not a popular notion. But I have come to see the absolutely essential nature of it in my own life. Then, I feel like a kid who has grown up a little and realizes, "my parents weren't as stupid as I thought they were."


It turns out, God's "rules" are for my protection...my health, my sanity, my learning...my peace.


I start this day with a moment in scripture...and I can feel God's river of peace trickle through my soul. Will I linger by the water for a time? Or will I rush off, thinking I know better, to get things done?


May we all have the strength to say "no" to something today...in order to have a little time to linger by the river.


PRAYER:
Jesus, you have shown us the example of a suffering servant; yet, we admit to self-absorption. We are embarrassed by our fascination with the superficial and temporal. Guide us, Jesus, beyond our own needs and desires. Teach us that peace and joy come through service in your name and that our truest identities are found in you. Amen.*


*Prayer taken from the Moravian Daily Texts