Ask any Dane whether they feel completely on top of the week\u2019s tasks.<\/p>\n
Whether everything's done, the inbox is empty, the list is cleared. Very few can say yes.<\/p>\n
We live in a world that always wants it faster, and preferably yesterday. And speed creates stress.<\/p>\n
It's more exhausting to run through a city than to walk calmly through it, even when the distance is the same.<\/p>\n
This is the second Tuesday in the series From Stressed to Blessed. Last time we saw that the Lord is the shepherd who provides for us.<\/p>\n
Today comes the next line. It's small, but it holds everything.<\/p>\n
\"He leads me to green meadows and brings me to still waters.\" (Psalm 23:2)<\/p>\n
In the English rendering there's something our translation tucks away neatly: the shepherd makes the sheep lie down.<\/p>\n
Sheep aren't wise enough to rest when they're tired. They keep going until the shepherd forces them down into the grass.<\/p>\n
If we're honest, we're not much better.<\/p>\n
God made your body so that if you don't take time off, the body takes it for you. At a moment you didn't choose.<\/p>\n
You might know the feeling. You push and push, and then you get sick right when you finally had a week with nothing on the list.<\/p>\n
God could have made us without any need for sleep. He didn't.<\/p>\n
You're going to sleep about a third of your life. Why would a God who gives you only eighty or ninety years let a third of it go to waste in sleep?<\/p>\n
Because it isn't waste. Because he wants to teach you that rest belongs to life.<\/p>\n
He set it so high that he wrote it into the Ten Commandments, side by side with you shall not kill and you shall not lie:<\/p>\n
\"Six days a week you shall work, all year round, even in planting time and harvest time. On the seventh day you shall rest from your work.\" (Exodus 34:21)<\/p>\n
Notice those four words: even in planting time and harvest time. Even when it's busiest of all.<\/p>\n
There is no season where the commandment takes a break. Are you an accountant, and is it March? You still take a day off. Are you self-employed in the middle of high season? It still holds.<\/p>\n
A sabbath does three things. It rests the body. It turns your focus toward God. And it recharges the emotions.<\/p>\n
That last part is what a day off doing something you love does to us. A hobby. A walk. Something that gives you your energy back.<\/p>\n
It doesn't have to be Sunday. Pick your own day.<\/p>\n
But don't call it \"my day off.\" Because then you'll cheat on it. You'll see everything sitting there waiting and think: I can just squeeze that in.<\/p>\n
Call it your sabbath. Then you'll use it for what God gave it for.<\/p>\n
And if you get a guilty conscience when you rest, remember that Jesus didn't.<\/p>\n
Again and again he withdrew after a busy stretch and said to his friends: come, let's get away for a while. He didn't feel guilty about it.<\/p>\n
He knew that if you don't get away, you break.<\/p>\n
Which day is your sabbath? And when did you last take a full day off, without cheating?<\/p>\n
Are you good or bad at resting? Be honest in the comments.<\/p>\n
The best in you requires rest. You're not wasting time when you rest. You're obeying.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ask any Dane whether they feel completely on top of the week\u2019s tasks.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tirsdags-teologi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aabenkirkekbh.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aabenkirkekbh.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aabenkirkekbh.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aabenkirkekbh.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aabenkirkekbh.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aabenkirkekbh.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2913,"href":"https:\/\/aabenkirkekbh.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2896\/revisions\/2913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aabenkirkekbh.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aabenkirkekbh.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aabenkirkekbh.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aabenkirkekbh.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}