… watching for the brushstrokes of God
I have been pondering the communal aspect of Sabbath keeping. People shaped by shared rhythms, together learning God’s rhythms, together inspiring each other to cease our labor and trust God’s provision.
Who inspires your Sabbath practices? How do you lead others in Sabbath rhythms?
“One could not begin the cultivation of the prayer life at a more practical point than deliberately to seek each day, and several times a day, a lull in the rhythm of daily doing, a period where nothing happens that demands active participation.” This lull of being rather than doing is a holy pause. “ ~ Howard Thurman
How do you breathe in between?
“When we celebrate the Sabbath we adore precisely something we do not see. … To name it queen, to call it bride is merely to allude to the fact that it’s spirit is a reality we meet rather than an empty span of time which we choose to set aside for comfort or recuperation.” ~ Abraham Heschel
How do we shift from setting aside to meeting?
“There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord“ ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel
How do you find the realm of time?
“Six days a week, we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul.“ ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel
As I understand it, the Chinese language creates words with pictures. The word leisure combines “space” and “sunshine”, busyness is painted from “heart” and “killing”. I recently took a retreat at a cabin inviting me to be with “sitting” and “creek”.
What are the words that shape your sabbath spaces?
With the Eyes of the Heart 