Sinks and Sabbath

“Not resting always leads to neglect—of people, of responsibilities, of our health. But even more importantly, it leads to neglecting our souls. God designed us with the need to pause. ”

This sink. Whew. Sometimes it gets this way. The dishwasher is full of clean dishes, begging to be put away in their proper places. I blinked and the sink morphed into a mountain of dishes. There’s even a waffle iron down in there, hence the cord sticking out. My sink doesn’t get this way often. But when it does, it’s for one of these two reasons:

1.     I am having a stand-off with my husband. I decide to purposely leave the dishes to see when he will break and do them because I just don’t want to. I know it’s silly and probably not godly. But it’s real.

2.     We are living busy, frantic lives—plain and simple. And it leads to neglect.

This round, it’s reason #2. My sink represents life lately. Busy. Messy. Disorganized. I went out of town for work and then came home to immediately leave again for a Women’s Retreat. The next weekend my husband left for a Men’s Retreat, and in between it all, we juggled two kids playing ball—all beautiful, good things. During all this, my husband also managed three classes for his seminary degree.

Bless him. It was a rough couple of weeks. And it only got worse. I returned to both of our kids getting sick. And the dishes steadily piled up along the way. I could’ve cared less about them. I didn’t want to deal with them.

All of our sinks get this way at times. (If yours doesn’t, then you’re superhuman, and you deserve props). But it represents something that has been on my heart for months because I think our souls get this way too. It’s an issue I’ve been reading about and listening to podcasts on, and it’s something I feel we just don’t do well. Sabbath. We can’t rest.

This is the cycle I (and I bet you) tend to operate within: Go, Go, Go. Hit a Wall. Collapse.

I’ve been on the edge of the collapsing state. We just don’t rest well, do we?

God demanded rest from His people in the Old Testament. I will get into this more soon, but our Holy God modeled rest for us after He created the heavens and the earth. And somehow, we think we can operate without it. We even become prideful in this stance, completely missing a good gift God wants to give us, thinking it makes us weak to need it.   

Not resting always leads to neglect—of people, of responsibilities, of our health. But even more importantly, it leads to neglecting our souls. God designed us with the need to pause. And even though our culture teaches us to keep going and to busy ourselves, God’s Word teaches something else entirely. Intentional rest is counter to our culture. But doesn’t it make sense for the enemy to lure us into such busy lifestyles that we neglect what matters most—pausing to be with Jesus?

The effects of refusing to rest pile up just like those dishes. As much as I didn’t want to dig my hands in and take care of them, I eventually had to (we ran out of spoons). And as much as we don’t want to dig in and deal with our need to rest, we must.

If you aren’t pausing consistently, then you’re heading toward exhaustion—physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion. I find my friends and myself here more and more, and honestly, it comes from striving to serve and minister—from striving to be good moms and dads and daughters and sons. Spiritual exhaustion is the most dangerous type; it’s the root of the issue which overflows into every other part of our lives. We’re going to look at what it means to rest. It’s utterly necessary to remain connected our vine. Sabbath may look more practical than you think. If you struggle with finding rest, join me here!