the sabbath retreat

francis-cookingthis past weekend i took some of our 11th & 12th graders to lake rosemound for an experiment in youth ministry. we had our first ever “sabbath”. in scripture GOD commands that we “sabbath” (or rest) “unto HIM”. we are supposed to stop and rest not just because we need to but also because it is a way of saying that we trust in GOD. resting is hard because we would rather trust our own hands and abilities than trust in a GOD WHO sometimes says “stop working”.

yet american culture is one in which work is worshipped. we love to work. adults and students love to work. so resting, really resting and not just swapping to working on something else, is difficult for us. we feel guilty if we are not doing something. so we ignore our physical, emotional, and spiritual need to rest. if we ever actually do take time off from the “rat race” that is going on around us we turn that time off into a time in which we work on other things. just so we will stay busy.

so the “sabbath” was about resting. we spent allot of time in silence, we spent allot of time doing nothing, we spent allot of time focused on only one passage of scripture and putting ourselves into that scripture. in other words we had a “sabbath”. truthfully it was not easy. it’s really easy to just do something, not really because anything needs to be done, but rather because we feel the need to do something, anything to keep from really being still.

it was a great weekend.

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