Before I start typing away at this blog post, I want to thank those who have been keeping my grandpa in your prayers. He’s been moved out of the hospital and into a nursing home, for occupational therapy. Since Grandma and some others worry that the move was a bit soon, my family down there is still trying to have someone with him 24/7, which I think is a blessing to him.
He was able to walk a few steps with a walker and spotters, which is huge! Still, his perception is not fully regained, and he cannot chew his food or drink liquids, and the left side of his body is still not working properly. (My mom was saying they put some powder in his morning coffee to “gel” it so he can swallow it, because liquids are too fast for his current swallowing reflex.) He keeps wanting to go home, which is now next door to his nursing home, but I’m sure being so close many of his friends will be able to visit him. I thank God so much for his vast improvements, though, and so many people who love him who are praying for him.
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Knut and I love to listen to sermons. Whether it’s on the ipod or radio, or a c.d. we put in, we are, I suppose, turning into old people in our love of listing to sermons. I think for me the love started in Bible school. I was fortunate enough to hear some of the greatest preachers of our time on a daily basis there, and would often go to the back of the chapel and purchase the sermon I just heard so I could play it again in my dorm room. One from back then that I still listen to is a sermon on Hosea given by a big black preacher on God’s redeeming love. it brings me to tears every time I hear it.
Knut loves to listen to sermons on the radio, as he often will spend his day either in the semi-truck or tractor and the sermons enrich his day. We’ve found that listening to sermons is more and more necessary as we have children. You see, sometimes, when you have 3 children crawling over you during church, it’s difficult to hear a sermon in its completion.
Our small church doesn’t have a children’s church, and to be honest, if they did we probably wouldn’t use it. I don’t think there’s a single thing wrong with having or using a children’s church, it’s just a matter of our preference. We have a system down that has worked so far with us. However, listening to the entirety of sermons is something we often miss in church, and so we try to supplement that teaching through the week.
Although, I think it was easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking “what’s the point of going to church?” and it still is. One of my favorite parts of going to church is being with the people, and talking to the people after the service. I used to feel very bad about this. How awful to go to worship God, but in all reality look forward to seeing someone, or some people.
I don’t feel bad admitting anymore that I go to the church to see people. I love the worship too, and I don’t think one is in competition with the other. You see, I no longer think of going to church to visit God. God is in my heart and with me always. I don’t visit him on Sundays, I visit others with God in their hearts, and the presence of God in each of us accumulates to this amazing experience of worship where God is so evident that our hearts are lifted and encouraged. The songs, the teaching, and the talking afterward, are all exercises in making the God in our hearts more evident in our lives. As Scripture says “When 2 or 3 gather together in my name, I am there with them.” Sorry, that’s from memory and that is not always the most accurate!
Knut came home from work the other day and said he heard the best sermon that day on the Sabbath. I don’t know if I’d ever heard a sermon on the Sabbath, and was actually intending to to a Bible study on it because it’s a Biblical concept I don’t feel I have a firm grasp on. He just went on and on about it, and got me so excited that we decided on a whim to order the whole series of sermons this pastor had done on the 10 commandments. Each sermon deals with a struggle in our lives that one of the 10 commandments directly addresses. This sermon is his sermon on our struggle with time.
For those who wonder what series I’m talking about, you can click here.
As for myself, I think out of all of the 10 commandments, the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy is the one I understand the least. I know that Knut never works on Sunday, and we are so blessed for that. However, we still feel like there is too much to do, there is not enough time, and we too often feel ragged. The principle of the Sabbath is following God’s pattern laid out for us with the proper balance of work and rest. It’s almost like God’s handbook for our bodies that he designed. Things addressed in the sermon is so vast, and so applicable! From manual laborers, executives, stay at home moms, the retired, and those who are unemployed, God has a work plan and rest plan laid out.
The pastor (Colin Smith) talks about the dignity of work, taking time to enjoy when work is complete, instead of just feeling more exhausted at the thought of work still left to be done (something we struggle with in our house.) How often do we finish the chores of one day, and instead of going to bed with the sense of accomplishment for the day, we either feel we did not get enough done, or we are overwhelmed with the work of the next day, which consumes our thoughts as we try to sleep.
Pastor Smith brings up that God created a model of work for us in creation. God made the world in 6 days. Have we ever thought why didn’t he just do it in an instant? Why on earth did it take him 6 days? He is God, you know. It’s because he was modeling for us how we should work. When God created something, he saw that it was good. he didn’t after the sun had set, think to himself, “Well, I’ve finished separating the land and water, but I haven’t even begun to make animals yet…O there’s so much to do!” No, he stopped, and said his work was good, and began the next job the next day.
We tend to get distracted from our work so easily, and then are so upset with ourselves at the end of the day that our work went unfinished, and then our rest at night and on the Sabbath has no joy. He suggests we ask ourselves on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis to write down what it is that we need to do that day/week/month/year to fulfill the calling God has given us. If we are still alive, God still has called us to work on this earth.
I love how he talks about how keeping the Sabbath holy is a community operation. The Sabbath is rest from your work, and sometimes requires that someone else takes your work for that day. This is the very reason I try not to schedule mothers of babies in our church nursery. There has to be a way to get those mothers rest while that work may not be “work” but be a “rest” for others in the church. That is one of my examples of what he was trying to say in the sermon. If everyone in our community is to have a Sabbath, we must serve one another this way.
The Sabbath is not a list of can and cannots on a particular day, but a day of rest and joy followed by a week of hard work. The joy is not there without the work, and the rest sometimes requires the presence of a community. In our “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” society, it’s easy to forget that God created us for community. It is not good for us to be alone, and in my opinion, nothing exhausts someone faster than the feeling of loneliness. I think if you run across someone who is exhausted, that person is lonely. Maybe she’s a single mom covered with children and works with people all day, but has no spouse, no family to rely on. She needs someone to share her burden. Someone to routinely give her a Sabbath. We are to be a people of God, not a person of God. A people set apart.
Well, I won’t give you the whole sermon here, because I’ve only heard it once, and I just wanted to share the tidbits that are still floating around in my head. I’d encourage all of you to listen to the sermon that I linked above, because it is so good! Who in this day in age doesn’t struggle with time in some way! For now, I’m going to pop it in the c.d. player one more time and listen to it while I do some dishes and get lunch set up. The day isn’t over yet.
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