Take a Moment

 I'm taking a moment today. An all day moment in fact.

I don't do this very often, but I have made choices to have a free day from all expectations and plans, that which I should do, or could do, or other people expect or want me to do.

It feels good, not in 'a self indulgent selfish I don't care about anyone else' day, but in a 'I'm finally learning a little bit of wisdom about not waiting till I crash and burn' to take a moment.

This has been the previous pattern of my life where I have spun plates of responsibility, needs of others, and false expectations on myself until I had burnout in 2008 and then hypertension heart issues in 2024.

Okay so I am a bit of a slow learner. My burn out of 2008 caused me to take more than a moment. It was nine months of moments when my body was so exhausted I went down with a chest infection I couldn't get out of my body. 

Different antibiotics didn't work, and rest didn't work because I had pushed myself too far in my attempts to lead a completely full life in response to everyone and everything. 

I ended up feeling like a 99 year old (I appreciate there are a few well and healthy ones) who could hardly walk from one end of our house to another. A dear friend came and helped me with cooking and cleaning because I had no energy. She would pat me firmly on the back to try to help me with my breathing. It is very good to have friends like that at times like that!

As I finally recovered after nine months I resolved to do things differently, but as my strength and energy returned so did my busy schedule, 'working for the Lord' and helping others, as well as a busy home and family life.

When we are well we can fool ourselves into feeling invincible. We charge on without taking a moment daily or weekly. God created the Sabbath for us.

Jesus came to a place of confronting the Pharisees about the Sabbath as His disciples plucked the heads of grain as they walked together with Him on the Sabbath day. The Pharisees were obsessed with rules and regulations, Jesus was interested in relationships.

Rules and regulations versus relationship. The battle between religious form and personal relationship with God manifested right there. It is a profoundly illuminating passage in the Gospel of Mark 2:23-28.

Mark 2:23 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.

I think it is a beautiful picture of a relaxed relationship. They were walking and talking and eating a little of the ripe grain in the fields. You can imagine the sun shining, the birds calling out praise to their Creator, and a sense of warm restorative friendship time with Jesus.

Tut tut tut!!! The Pharisees saw it and all they could see were a bunch of people breaking a law with a leader not controlling His followers.

Mark 2:24 And the Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"

Plucking a few grains to eat while going for a walk with Jesus fell under their understanding of 'do not work on the Sabbath.'

Jesus responds

Mark 2:25-26 But He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?'

Both Jesus and the Pharisees were fully aware of the legal severity of David's actions. In Leviticus 24:5-9 there is clear teaching that the bread is an offering to God and is only to be eaten by Aaron and his sons as priests in the holy place. David and his men were very hungry. That was the only bread available. They ate it and God did not condemn David and his men for it.

Jesus continues,

Mark 2:27-28 And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."

The Sabbath was made for man. Why?

Because we can't keep going day in and day out, and week in and week out without resting.

And for our relationship with Jesus. Time to be with God, to worship God, to read His Word, to speak to God and to listen to Him. This can be with others in whatever form that looks like, but it also needs to be part of our own lives as individuals having a personal relationship with God.

This is my main take away. Jesus wasn't putting down the Sabbath. He was saying that there is something or rather Someone that is way more important than trying to keep all the religious 'often with mankind adding to them' rules.

The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath, and we can make Him Lord of our lives. He wants to be with us in an easy, relaxed daily 'walking through the wheatfields' kind of relationship that enables His life to flow through us as a blessing to others.

This is not some impossible fantasy. This begins with us taking a moment not just from tiredness, but as a deliberate and joyful part of our everyday lives.

The blessing of having a Sabbath rest is real, and so is spending time listening to God in relationship with Him each day. There is so much He wants to talk to us about if we will 'take a moment' to be with Him.