Percy’s Random Ramblings

Vacation God Moments, Part 1 – Celebrating the Sabbath Monday, 01/16/2012

Sarah and I took a wonderful fall vacation trip up to Asheville, North Carolina right before Thanksgiving this past year – a “babymoon” of sorts.  It’s the second time we’ve made this trip, and we always seem to find ourselves driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway at some point.  I always feel that God talks most to me when I’m closest to His creations and this trip was no different.  I think there’s a few things He tried to teach me during our afternoon drive, and I thought I’d share those with you.

The first of these has a tie in with a Sunday School lesson from around the same time.  The basic premise was that God gives us the Sabbath as a gift, and we don’t always know what to do with it.  Too, the point of the Sabbath is to rest, to change up your routine in such a way as you get energized and rejuvenated.  For me, this vacation was a Sabbath.

This vacation allowed us to rest – we didn’t have to do anything at any particular time, nor did we have to be anywhere at any particular time.  We didn’t have any responsibilities other than enjoying ourselves.  We could go where we pleased, when we pleased, and we surely did.

It also allowed us to reconnect.  It’s easy for life to get in the way of your marriage, but that’s not why God put that perfect partner in your life.  It’s through growth in your relationship together that causes you to grow more than you could individually.  I don’t know about you, but for me, it takes me a while to “re-enter” my personal life after I’ve been working all day.  It’s not usually until about halfway through dinner (and sometimes not even then) before I can shut off things going on at the office.  And, it usually has to be a conscious effort.  However, on a trip like this, where the time off has been planned for some time, I find that I can let the office go.

That actually brings me to one of the most important things to do while celebrating your Sabbath – disconnect from the world.  It’s taken me a while to get comfortable with this and I’m not completely there.  I have to disable my work e-mail and sometimes my personal e-mail.  I leave my phone on silent most of the time, just to be sure I concentrate on what’s most important.  You have to “Stop the Noise” as my friend Carisa Turner puts it (more on this in a later post).  I find that God will speak to me in that low whisper, but I have to be in a place where I can hear it.  Sometimes it happens because I’m really focusing on what Sarah is saying.  Sometimes it happens because I hear a bird chirping on a sunny day. Sometimes it’s because I hear nothing at all and it makes me uncomfortable.  I can tell you that it doesn’t usually happen in the “bing” of a new e-mail or the reminder of an upcoming appointment. That doesn’t mean God can’t use those moments – He definitely can. I find that, for me at least, those moments usually just distract me from Him or what He’s trying to show/teach me.

If you can’t tell, I’m not taking the Sabbath to only mean Sunday.  I’m taking it to mean a time of rest and relaxation.  It’s a time that’s set apart from your everyday routine. It’s sacrificing time spent in one area to spend time with God – in other words, Choosing to Cheat. It’s allowing yourself the time to be open to what He has to say to you.

Too, I’m still learning how to celebrate the Sabbath. I’m not always sure what to do with a gift like that, but I’m trying to get better about it. It’s about being intentional, and that’s what I’m working on. I’m putting this out there more as a reminder to myself.

So, how do you celebrate the Sabbath?