What’s the Point?
In writing, the point is the objective of the piece (and in my case, the objective of the peace).
It is why any effort to write something is worth the struggle. Sometimes, frankly, you discover it actually isn’t worth the hassle, and you bank the fragment in your junk yard. Perhaps later you will return to scavenge parts for something else, or you will think of another route to your destination.
When time permits you can just doodle or talk to yourself. This is like mining for gold with the understanding that there are a whole lot more rocks out there than gold. Also you have to keep your eyes open to the unexpected. You might unearth a diamond, or a precious memory long forgotten. But if you like spending time with yourself and urgent matters aren’t clawing for attention, it’s a good pass time, sort of like fishing. It’s not a waste of time, but it might be pointless at least in the moment…
Which brings me to the particular point of this reflection.
Our rushed lives, determined, no matter the cost, to accomplish goals and objectives (although important at a basic survival level) leave us empty. And this emptiness, if ignored too long, sucks the essence of our lives away. We end up living hollow lives void of joy. This is why God codified the Sabbath into his Ten Commandments. It’s number four.
Christians often ignore this one. They justify doing so by saying that Jesus died on the cross and so replaced the requirements of keeping the law. If this is what you think, you are missing out. It’s sort of the minimalist perspective that says all I have to know is the least about this whole religious thing, because I’m saved.
You might be saved. I hope you are, but if this is where you leave your thirst to know God better, and by knowing God, discovering who you really are, then in a sense, you are accepting a future of meaningless suffering.
Sure you might be that one lost sheep the shepherd saved by leaving the ninety-nine others quietly grazing in safety, but this means you were living a much harder life than the others who elected not to wander off.
And what I would like to suggest for your consideration today is that the pasture where the sheep safely graze is the Sabbath.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Exodus 20:8-11 (ESV)
Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.
Leviticus 23:3 (ESV)
While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And the LORD said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Numbers 15:32-36 (ESV)
Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
Our Lord created us and knows what we need, including a break from what can be the tedium of the usual daily grind. “Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:27