Sabbath- Forgiveness

 It's Ash Wednesday. I've lost a week or so somewhere. Writing just didn't happen. But, here I am again... still working towards consistency.

As I look ahead to lent, I think about looking back. I feel like lent is a time to reflect, repent, and return to where I want to be in my spiritual life. So, where is that? I have 40 days to think about it. How can my actions during lent help me figure this out? How can I use my Sabbath time to help me get closer to where I want to be? 

If I'm honest with myself, I know that the spiritual practice I need to work on being more consistent with is my prayer life. So, I've found a few things to help me. One is a book I might have mentioned before. My pastor uses some of the prayers during church functions. I bought the book so that I can access it on my phone. There are 31 days of prayers, morning and evening prayers as well as others. So, I decided to use this book during lent. Rather than using the book as written, I'm focusing on each prayer for a bit until I'm familiar with it. I'm sure some will resonate more than others and by the end I hope to have prayers I can use regularly as "prayer starters." I'm also planning to use the youversion app daily prayer prompts. 

Right now, I'm fasting. I'm hungry. Each time I think about being hungry, it reminds me of several things. While I haven't eaten in a day, many people haven't eaten for longer than that and don't know when they will eat. It also reminds me that this very minimal suffering is nothing compared to what Jesus suffered to save us! Lastly, the few times I have fasted, I begin to focus more on things that are important, emotions run higher and I feel more open to things and ideas. I'm looking forward to the Ash Wednesday service tonight and what God has to say to me. I will break my fast with communion.

Throughout lent, I've decided to give up red meat and frozen desserts (ice cream, custard, frozen yogurt). Why these things? I love frozen desserts. It doesn't matter if it's freezing outside. I will eat ice cream anytime! So, I feel like it's something I can give up and will feel the loss of during lent. Red meat? I don't eat a lot of red meat- that I realize. I typically think of myself as eating chicken much more. But, I think in reality I eat it in small portions more than I realize- tacos, spaghetti, chili, etc. So, I thought it would be good to fast from something that might surprise me and it might help me be more aware of other things, too. I'm not sure if it makes sense to anyone else, but that's ok. I think lent is a time of personal reflection so everyone has to figure out their own path. 

How is my Sabbath journey going? I've been listening to the podcast regularly. It's been interesting, but the latest episodes haven't given me a whole lot of earth shattering Sabbath thoughts. But, I do have one very important one. Forgiveness. That has got to be a part of Sabbath if our Sabbath time is supposed to be our version of connecting with God and feeling a sense of heaven on earth. The podcasts talked about the seven year forgiveness of loans and servants being freed. Then, it talked about the 50 year jubilee when everyone would go back to their homeland even if they had sold it, along with the forgiveness of loans and servitude. I can't imagine a world with no debt and where every seven or even 50 years people would once again all be on the same level- no rich or poor because we would all be the same. How amazing would that be!? So, forgiveness has to be an important part of Sabbath. How can I incorporate that concept in my Sabbath time? Taking time to think about anyone I need to forgive or anyone I need to ask for forgiveness from has to be a part of my weekly Sabbath journey.

Blessings,

Jennifer

Sabbath- Joy

Note: this was written a couple weeks ago but not posted.  

This last week, I read some articles about the Sabbath. One article was really helpful since it gave me an idea of how someone spends her Sabbath time. One of the things she talked about was lighting a candle when she started her Sabbath time. I knew this was part of the Jewish Sabbath, but somehow the idea never really occurred to me until I read her article. Since my Sabbath time extends over parts of several different days, I feel like the lines might tend to blur. I like the idea of lighting a candle to signify my Sabbath time has started. Of course, the times when I leave my house, like going to church, I wouldn't be able to keep the candle lit. But, for the most part, I think this will be really helpful. As I thought about it, I decided I'd like to have a candle in a bottle like I've done with my youth. As the candle is lit during prayer time, and now Sabbath time, the dripping wax stays on the bottle to signify all of the prayers, now Sabbath experiences, that have blended together and been given to God. So, I'm in search of the right bottle so I can begin using the candle during Sabbath. That's a goal of mine for this week. 

While listening to the sermon from a week ago, another idea occurred to me. The pastor talked about several prayers, a morning prayer and an evening prayer. I realized that it would be helpful to start my Sabbath time not just with lighting a candle but to say a prayer to help me focus my time with God... a sort of greeting in my time with Him. If I were to spend time with a friend, I would start our time together by greeting my friend. I should do the same with my Sabbath time. With a friend I would also leave with parting words, making it also a good thing to do as I end my Sabbath time. To start, I think I will find a prayer to use each time, but later I may change my mind. We will see. 

The last thing I want to talk about is also from the same sermon. The pastor talked about Simeon and Anna, about the joy they felt from seeing Jesus. I was reminded of some times in my life when I was struggling and spending time with a child gave me so much joy that I was comforted. When I was first grieving my dad's passing, I spent time caring for a boy at work. While some may not have understood why I went to work, I knew that the joy those few hours would give me would give me some comfort from my pain. I need to think about that as I think about my Sabbath time. How can I experience the joy of a child- both remembering the joy I had as a child and the joy I experienced spending time with children? 

Sabbath- Trust, Gratitude, Peace

 It's Sunday! Here I am enjoying my Sabbath time at my mom's house. This week, there were several things I heard about the Sabbath that I wanted to share. But, time for writing didn't seem to be a part of my week. I knew I'd have a chance today so I didn't stress about it. 

I learned that the Exodus from Egypt is a parallel to the creation story. The plagues, the walking through the Red Sea, and finally collecting manna for six days, leaving the seventh day for rest and trusting that what was collected on the sixth day would be sufficient all are ways Exodus is reminiscent of Genesis and Eden. Thinking about manna on the seventh day brought me to another realization. While I already talked about the planning that goes into practicing the Sabbath, I think another part of the Sabbath has to be trust. We have to trust that while we are practicing Sabbath time, all else will be taken care of. That time that we take to focus on God, we don't have to worry about the rest of our obligations. I'm not good at this. In fact, it may be my biggest downfall. I'm always busy and trying to do things, help people, make sure things are ok. So, it's really important for me to work on trusting that during this time the world will not fall apart. I also need to let God take control instead of thinking I'm in control. I could see myself being one who collected manna on the seventh day... maybe someone had forgotten and will need some... maybe I'll be extra hungry... maybe something else will happen. But, nope! That's not the way it worked then and it's not the way the Sabbath is supposed to work now. So, when I am practicing my Sabbath time, I need to make sure I'm not distracted by things I'm worrying about or trying to control. I just need to trust that God is in control and He is taking care of me.

Another thing I thought about while hearing the stories of Exodus was that one of the most important things that should have been happening was gratitude. I'm often amazed that only a month after leaving a life of slavery, people were complaining and whining. Do I do this? Do I quickly forget the blessings I experience day after day? When I used to write this blog daily and focused on where I saw God each day, I experienced God so much more fully because I was looking for Him. Then, I was living a life filled with gratitude for those blessings. While some of that has stayed a part of my life, I want to experience it more fully again. So, I think part of the Sabbath has to be focused on gratitude. We need to spend time thanking and praising God for the blessings He has provided. Even more importantly, we need to realize the blessings when they might be harder to see. When the people were wandering in the wilderness, hungry and tired, they weren't seeing the blessing of freedom from Egypt. How often is that the case for us today? I'm not sure how this will be a part of my Sabbath. Maybe I will blog about it, maybe I will spend some time in prayer, or maybe I will spend some time telling someone I am grateful for the ways God worked through them to impact my life. Somehow, it needs to be a significant part of my Sabbath time each week. 

Lastly, this week's podcast also talked about the Exodus and the tabernacle. The Tabernacle was built to be a place for God's presence. In the creation story, Eden was a place where God was present. Then, Moses went up on the mountain and on the seventh day, God appeared and talked to Him. I see a pattern here. I feel like the Sabbath has to be a place where we can feel God's presence, where we are at peace, and where we can take some time to not be distracted by other things. Of course, most people spend some of their Sabbath time at church worshipping. But, where else is God's presence? Where else do I feel like I'm in a place conducive to connecting to God, experiencing God, or just feeling peace? Right now, most of my Sabbath time is spent either at my house or at my mom's house. Both of those places give me that sense of calm. I also spend time walking my dog and I think that works, too. Being in nature is one of the best ways I experience God. When I see the artistry He has created in nature, I'm convinced in His presence. As I look at the things I want to focus on when practicing the Sabbath, I need to be more intentional about where I will be during that time and make sure that I'm in a place where I can experience the presence and Peace of God. 

Blessings,

Jennifer 

Since I'm spending the day at my mom's, I'll start with talking about Sabbath places.