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Time to Rest

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Rest. Be still. Peace. Be anxious for nothing.

Continually, the Bible calls for rest, but what does that mean to you?

At the start of Genesis, after the creation of the world, God set aside a specific day for rest. Let’s look at the actual word used in Hebrew:

Shabath – to cease, desist, rest

“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested (Shabath) from all his work which God created and made.” Genesis 2:3

This is the word used when speaking of the seventh day of the week when God rested and created the, you guessed it, Sabbath. It doesn’t indicate rest due to weariness. That word in Hebrew is:

Nuach- rest, settle, soothed
Naphash – to be refreshed, to breathe

“Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease [shabath] from labor in order that your ox and your donkey may rest [nuach], and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh [naphash] themselves.” Exodus 23:12

In a way, Shabath is a day to remember more is to come. The Shabath or Sabbath is like a taste of heaven. There is no toil there. We truly rest from all our work.

Wait, but what about the work? What is work?

“Six days you shall work, and the seventh day is Shabbat to the Lord your God. [On that day] you shall not do any work (Melacha).” Exodus 20:9

The Hebrew word for work here is Melacha:

Melacha – workmanship or creation

Now, what exactly workmanship or creation is could be debatable, right? I mean, if we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty, we need to know what we shouldn’t be doing. Orthodox Jews have a propensity to detail, using a fine tooth comb to determine the ins and outs of God’s laws and commands. There are about 39 activities one is forbidden to do during the Sabbath, according to that denomination.

I’m going to be honest. I personally feel that is putting words in God’s mouth. Observe it as you will, but having so many stipulations defeats the purpose.

God is, well, God and doesn’t need rest after strenuous activity as humans do. However:

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27

He knew what humans would need, and he specified that they should rest, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

As for what rest means to me, I’ve been observing the Sabbath (with off and on success) since my childhood, and there’s a few things you’ll realize once you get into the groove of it:

1) Today, you’re a kid again. Six days out of my week, I’m on the go, and when I’m not, I’m thinking about what else I need to do. On Friday night to Saturday night (which is the day I celebrate the Sabbath), I’m not supposed to do work, so what’s the point of thinking about it? Freedom, fun, and play!

2) It’s an excuse to say no. You want me to what? Nope. I have to what? Nope. Ahhh. I’ll just sit here and read, thanks.

3) It’s an entire day built around meditation or mindfulness. The whole point of the day is to stop, look around, and feel blessed. You don’t always get the chance on other days to just take a deep breath and smell the roses.

4) It’s an entire day built around connection: connection to God, to family, to friends, to yourself. In busyness, it’s easy to disconnect from you and your loved ones. Now, you don’t have the excuse of checking another to-do off your list.

5) It’s a day for gratefulness. Six days out of the week was made for pushing forward, hustling, creating, and building up the world around you. On the seventh day, you look around at your success and your blessings.

6) Sometimes, you’ll feel lost in the complete freedom, especially at first. Our brain and bodies are normally in gear for driving forward, but on the Sabbath you are allowed to put yourself in neutral. It can be disorienting to separate yourself from the worldly, daily grind.

7) You’ll be healthier. Humans were not made to keep going 24/7 365 days a year. We were made for rest and peace. Your mind will thank you, your heart will thank you, your soul will thank you.

I hope you get a chance to observe the Sabbath and enjoy the pause and rest in your life God set aside just for you.

New Hope

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To me, this verse means time is nothing to God. He exists in our past, present, future, and beyond the confines of time itself. Yet, here we are at the cusp of a new year, according to the Gregorian calendar. Not so for most calendar types, and there are hundreds of calendar types throughout the world with variants of each one going back into ancient history. They tell dates with different methods, including solar, lunar, lunisolar, and fixed length. Oh, but it’s 2016? Yeah, that depends:

Gregorian calendar 2016
MMXVI
Ab urbe condita 2769
Armenian calendar 1465
ԹՎ ՌՆԿԵ
Assyrian calendar 6766
Bahá’í calendar 172–173
Bengali calendar 1423
Berber calendar 2966
British Regnal year 64 Eliz. 2 – 65 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar 2560
Burmese calendar 1378
Byzantine calendar 7524–7525
Chinese calendar 乙未年 (Wood Goat)
4712 or 4652
— to —
丙申年 (Fire Monkey)
4713 or 4653
Coptic calendar 1732–1733
Discordian calendar 3182
Ethiopian calendar 2008–2009
Hebrew calendar 5776–5777
Hindu calendars
– Vikram Samvat 2072–2073
– Shaka Samvat 1937–1938
– Kali Yuga 5116–5117
Holocene calendar 12016
Igbo calendar 1016–1017
Iranian calendar 1394–1395
Islamic calendar 1437–1438
Japanese calendar Heisei 28
(平成２８年)
Javanese calendar 1949–1950
Juche calendar 105
Julian calendar Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar 4349
Minguo calendar ROC 105
民國105年
Nanakshahi calendar 548
Thai solar calendar 2559
Unix time
1451606400 – 1483228799

My personal favorite is the year of the Wood Goat.

So, if time doesn’t matter, then what’s the point of celebrating an arbitrary day?

Hope.

Humanity yearns for renewal of hope, to clean the slate, and to move onward to greater things than before. Yet, again and again, God tells us in his Book that every moment is a new beginning:

Lamentations 3:22-23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness”

Isaiah 43:19 “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:The old has gone, the new is here!”

2016 hasn’t been the easiest year for most of us, and many are looking ahead to 2017 with hope that the world and life will be better. It all begins with you.

So, this year, if you “fail” your New Year’s resolution, remember this moment (and this one, aaaand this one too) is a good time to begin again – and celebrate the new beginnings God gives you every day. 

What Are You Celebrating?

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I have a confession. I’ve been overwhelmed the past few days. Instead of sugarplums, there’s been visions of chores, errands, and bills dancing in my head. I want our house to feel homey this season, there to be lots of good food on the table, and plenty of presents for my daughter to bring smiles and laughter.

There’s something about nature that makes me feel closer to God. I was driving to my parents’ house in the country during an awe-inspiring sunset spread out above a glowing field. That was when it hit me: what are you celebrating? I’ve learned to recognize God’s voice, though I’m not always good at listening. This time, it felt like a gut-punch.

Are you celebrating cleanliness, materialism, or how others think of you? Then, why are you stressing about it? Christmas for me is about God’s grace, love, and blessings. His son was born in a lowly manger, lived in a poor carpenters home, and never accumulated many material things as His purpose was to teach others of God’s love while on the road. Are you much better than Him?

This Christmas, let’s celebrate the true meaning of Jesus’ birth. Let’s experience joy over the things we have and not the things we want. Let’s spend the holiday getting closer to each other and not showing each other up.

What are you focusing on this Christmas? Whatever it is, I pray it is on God and the Prince of Peace.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!””Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42

In Hebrew, one would say Shalom, peace be unto you this season.

To Christmas or Not to Christmas

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That is the question.

For much of my childhood, my family celebrated Christmas. We did the whole Santa, reindeer, lights, cookies and milk, gifts, tree thing. My parents even wrote a letter to me in calligraphy as if it were from Santa (cute!).

Then, around when I was seven, they decided to move away from that celebration. There are, as most people know, roots of the holiday in paganism, and they felt it didn’t honor God. So, I was enlightened as to the nature of Santa (which I had already suspected by then), and eventually we stopped observing that holiday completely.

Now, with a child and husband of my own, my little family celebrates Christmas. There is no tree, and I don’t encourage the whole Santa & reindeer idea. Instead, I try to focus on Jesus as well as I can. We have a figurine set of the manger scene, and the Jesus baby is the only part that isn’t stuck to it. Jesus is in the 25th tin of our Advent calendar, and my daughter gets to open it up and put the baby in His manger on Christmas. We read stories about God around that day. Our church has a Christmas Eve program, which reiterates the focus on the birth of Christ for even children with song, dance, and fake snow for the children run around in as it falls.

Our Christmas isn’t very traditional, but it is perfect for us.

I honestly don’t think either way is incorrect, and as Christians, we must make many decisions about life that may not conform to the ways of the world. As a friend of mine once said, there are closed-handed issues for Christians: those ideas which are essential for being a follower such as believing in God, His grace and salvation, and loving God and others. Then, there are open-handed issues for Christians: those ideas which must be made by each individual and are personal to the way he or she feels called by God. I personally feel Christmas is one of those open-handed issues. As long as you honor God, your Christmas (or lack thereof) is blessed.

Rom. 14:4-9 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

What do you think? Do you celebrate? Why or why not? Also, if you do, how do you keep Christ in Christmas?

My Crazy Testimony

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I didn’t grow up “in the church,” so churchy terminology feels strange and archaic to me. For the longest time, I honestly didn’t know I had a testimony.

So, for those, like me, who didn’t know, this is the definition of testimony according to Google:

tes·ti·mo·ny

/ˈtestəˌmōnē/

noun

noun: testimony; plural noun: testimonies

•a formal written or spoken statement, especially one given in a court of law.

•evidence or proof provided by the existence or appearance of something.

•a public recounting of a religious conversion or experience.

What’s interesting is the Bible and Torah has ideas that formed the backbone of many legal systems around the world. One of these ideas is the testimony. If you were pulled as a witness in a court of law and questioned as to the existence or the character of God, what would you say?

When I was 11, just about to turn 12, my aunt’s boyfriend (who was Muslim) told me that Islam has something called “the age of accountability.” Basically, this is the age people are old enough to be held accountable for their own actions. I may not have grown up in the church, but I grew up with very religious/spiritual parents, and I was very determined to be perfect for God.

I could envision a forest, each tree a person. In order to be noticed by God (whom I’d already fallen in love with), I needed to be the tallest one, and I figured the way to stand out for God was to be sinless. So, I’d been reading the Bible (understanding it in my limited way as a child), and in the old testament there are a heck of a lot of rules, laws, and ordinances. It was overwhelming for me at the time.

One night, I lie in bed and prayed to God. I needed something simpler I could remember, so no matter what I faced in life, I’d know I was doing the right thing.

Now, I was 11, remember, so I still believed in a magical God, in which many adults have probably lost faith. So, I expected to be answered, but not directly of course. Perhaps, He would communicate by way of a TV program or a song that would hit the right message.

I was hoping for a paragraph or something I could memorize. Surely, it would take at least a page to summarize the Bible’s laws.

In the dark of my bedroom, I heard a single solitary word:

Love.

It was like a thought, but it also felt separate from me.

So, of course, I immediately started arguing with it. No way that was it. That was too easy to remember, too simplistic, idealistic, rainbow, unicorns …

My mother once told me if I ever heard anything pertaining to God, to check the Bible before absorbing the message. If anything conflicted with what was said in the Bible, it wasn’t of God. So, I turned on the light and went to my bookshelf. Picking up my Bible, I flipped randomly through. It fell open to a page in the new testament – Matthew 22:36-40:

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I can’t even explain how dumbfounded I was that night. I still argued with the word “love” for the rest of the night, tossing the idea to and fro in my mind until I fell asleep.

I have since realized this event was too coincidental to be anything but God answering my prayer, and nothing has conflicted with the idea that “love” summarizes all of God’s laws. In fact, Love is the meaning of life, and as the Bible will also say, God is Love.

This is one of the reasons behind this blog. No one but God can be perfect, but we will always be loved. We are also called to love.

That moment has shaped the rest of my life, and I hope my testimony will shape yours.

Nothing New

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Is there anything new under the sun? I can write a million words and not one of them unique. So, dear child, why on Earth do I still do it?

There’s perpetual fire in my veins, an itch under my skin. My fingers long to type words that shape into images, personalities, relationships, stories, souls yearning, tales of both adventure and every day mundane grind turned into poetry about the human heart. I want to feel the worlds tumbling out, shining like brilliant stars, pointing the way to the heavens in the dark of this world.

In short, I can’t stop or I’ll die.

So, in answer, there is absolutely nothing new under the sun. Absolutely nothing more I can say that hasn’t already been said and nothing more I can do that hasn’t already been done. Not really.

However –

this yearning in my bones will not stop until this ancient world is peeled layer by layer again and again for every new born child, for every newly born soul. I must redirect the eyes to the heavens, and I can’t stop until everyone is staring up.

Even then, I’ll keep writing.

Fall Together

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“Don’t look for Love. Quietly give it away and wait for it to come back.”

Sometimes, this world wants us to think about ourselves. What I deserve, what I need, what I want, I I I… Of course, even I don’t always know what I deserve, need or want. There are situations and seasons in time when going away is better than staying. There are also situations and seasons in time when staying is better than going away. When we stay, we must remember to return to God, to turn to what HE wants us to think.

He, the silent observer, creator of our world and destiny, pushes a chess piece across the board of life. This is more than a game, and He treats it with much seriousness. Our lives are made of fragments of time and minute strategic movements we don’t always understand.

I deserve nothing because I am entitled to nothing. I am nothing without Him. However, I am everything WITH HIM. I smile at the sunset not because I possess it. I smile because the One who spins the stars is in control. He gives me everything I have, and nothing is actually mine. I am simply a steward of his gifts.

I need nothing because I have everything with Him. He who formed my body from the dust and warm winds knows what I need. If He so deemed it, I could survive without food, drink, or breath in my lungs. If He so deemed it, I could die any moment even with such life-sustaining minutia. I am at His mercy, and thankfully, His mercy is great whether I live or die.

I want nothing because, again, I have everything with Him. I may desire many things, but He gives me greater than I ever imagined because He knows me better than I know myself. He who knows the number of hairs on my head and can count the dust motes that exist from one end of the Universe to the other. Is it not wonderful then that His love for me is infinite, and He wants the best for me?

So, while I stay, I wait on Him. It’ll save a lot of wasted time. While I wait on Love, I also wait on Him as He is love. I shall become love because I am His child, a Princess of Hearts, a Queen of Life, a Royal soldier to the One True King. He sustains, He provides, He fulfills. As I wait, He teaches me about Himself, shows me what Love is. He tells me to give it away and wait for it to return.

Fill the Bucket

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I am a planner. I have bagoodles (yes that is a word) of calendars, a filled planner, and about 4 or 5 lists going at any given time. So, this month, I have something new planned: Nothing.

Yeah, I am tired of running circles in the name of productivity. It is time to own up and live my life free and unhindered. Do not get me wrong. I will still probably love my calendars and planners. That is just me. However, I am actually planning unscheduled days off. I am planning “me” times. I am planning my wine and soaks in the tub, my hour-long reading sessions, my… I do not know what else as I rarely schedule “me” time, but you get my drift. Heck, I might just partner up with a loved one and schedule a nap every now and then. I think that is totally worth a trip to my parents house so they can watch my daughter for a couple hours. Man, I am getting antzy. I am totally pumped about this productivity thing, especially the part where taking a nap is checking off something on my list. Ha.

I even made a “Fill the Bucket” list, since I could not easily think of awesome “me” stuff to do. The title is “Fill the Bucket” because I read something somewhere about us all having a bucket that we could fill with life and joy and light and little moments in which we take pleasure. Okay, maybe it is kind of like a “Bucket List.” If our bucket gets too low, we have little to give others, so it is very important to fill the bucket so we can have a hand in filling others’ buckets. It is what life is all about, and I think the God of love and light would agree. I decided to sit down and think on it. Here is what I came up with:

Nap (duh), massage, wine and read, soak in the tub, back-to-back episodes of favorite show, buy new song on iTunes, buy new book, walk in nature, write creatively (I am doing it now!! Points for productivity), have fun with Cady, pedicure / manicure / facial (even if done at home), 5k run, self date (complete with movie, restaurant, etc. all done alone), creative project (like maybe painting a room… with wine in hand), practice at the shooting range, long pleasant talk with a loved one (and no distractions), meditation, yoga session, exercise, stay in bed ALL DAY, sing karaoke, and eat expensive chocolate. I am sure I can come up with much more than that, and it should be fun to think up new things.

Make your own “Fill the Bucket” list! What would you put on it?

To My Daughter

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Never stop staring at the skies, or watching the sun dip between the trees. Still be mystified by the silhouettes of branches in the twilight when the air is cooler and the world has turned to black and gray.

Never stop following frogs and insects around your backyard, scaring them into tall grass before you pounce to snatch them up. Keep on chasing them, and once you catch them, never stop laughing. When they finally leave, it is okay to cry about it. They were your friends. They will still continue to be, but it is okay to grieve when someone has gone away for awhile even if you know you will see them again. Do not let anyone tell you not to feel or how to feel, even me. Of course, there are appropriate ways to express your feelings because you would never want to cause harm to others, but the emotions themselves are lovely and dark and twisted and bright and everything in between. They are REAL. Stay real. Stay connected to yourself.

Sometimes, when you lie awake at night, it is okay to sing songs to your dolls and stuffed animals and talk to your pillow. If you do not want to go to work, it is also okay to, just for a little while so you are not late, walk around your yard or play chase or pick flowers or watch cartoons until the last minute. It will lift your soul. You are fully connected to you, are you not? You constantly fill your bucket.

If you stay this way, you will never be depressed, people can never manipulate you or your emotions, you will forever be smart and creative and strong, and the world will adore you, but even if they hate you, you will love yourself and that is what matters. Remember to watch the winds move the world around you as though everything is swaying to a song. Sing that song… out loud… so the neighbors shush you… until the words make your throat raw… never stop.

And if you ever look up into the stars and moon, remember your God made them and the sun too, just for you. Remember they were there when your mom and dad were young, and we gazed at them too. When your grandparents were young, when your great grandparents were young. They are ancient, watching many generations. They will be around when your grandchildren look up into the heavens, too. Know that your soulmate is under those same celestrial bodies, waiting for you. And if you do not have a soulmate, if you are not destined for romance or marriage or children, know that happiness lies there too, with you lying on a bed of grass in an open field with the clouds making pictures for you.

Alone, you never are alone. Even if you are blessed to live to a ripe old age and your golden curly locks turn gray, and your eyes fade, and your muscles ache, and you are all alone because everyone you love has passed from this world to the next with God before you, even if, remember you are never alone. God is always with you, and He, unlike everything else in this dying, aging, molding, graying, disintegrating world, He is permanent and unchanging and forever present and forever loving you. Love Him back, and be at peace whereever you are in life. And listen to the frogs croak outside your window and remember me and your dad catching them for you to hold in your hands and laugh. And remember laughter.

Laugh for me. Love for me. Remember God is love and laughter, do that for me. And be at peace, forever young in spirit.

Juice Fast Part 1

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This is the first of two posts I will write about my juice fast experience.

I thought I would share a few things I learned during my juice fast a few months back. This is not to brag or show my works in the world, but it was originally done to glorify God and create a clean devout spirit in which to hear God’s voice in my life (ya know, not necessarily literally ;)). It was a movement started by my church, and not everyone in the church was called to do it. They simply asked for everyone who could and who had the calling to fast in some way. It could be a fast of electronics, facebook, certain foods, certain activities, etc. This was not connected in any way to the Catholic day of a different name. Some, like me, felt called to do a food fast of sorts.

Easier than a water fast (which is a fast of all foods and drinks except water) is the juice fast. At least this way, I would be getting some nutrients from the juice and not completely starving myself for days. It was still scary to not eat whole foods. Actually, the experience was scarier than I imagined. Now, hear me out. This is still an experience I wish every healthy-bodied spiritual-minded person would undertake at some point in their life. It is very moving and definitely brings you in communion with God. Even if only to beg him for time to pass so you can go back to eating. Just kidding! Well, not completely…

I learned (again) that I have a highly sensitive reaction to my blood sugar levels. Everyone does in some way, and no, I am not diabetic. I might be hypoglycemic. Probably, this was a horrible idea to juice fast, but I did not know that ahead of time or I would have talked with a nutritionist on how to do this safer. Case in point: Several times I had panic attacks sometime in the afternoon/evening to the point of sweating and beating heart. I quickly realized that blood sugar has a fine line to balance. A little fruit juice with nothing else on my stomach, and my sugar levels would skyrocket causing panic attacks and dizziness. Only vegetable juice for hours, and my sugar levels would drop causing panic attacks and dizziness. Yeah, it was a pain.

The surprising fact is that cravings for food mostly go away after the first couple days of a juice fast. That’s about when real hunger kicks in. See, I have thought all my life that this grumbly stomach and ache I get in my gut was hunger. Nope. That is just the tip of the iceburg. That is just my body saying hey I sure would like something. It is a polite request. After a couple days, my body was starting to get a little upset with me for denying it a chewing, real food experience. Real hunger is experienced in the throat and mouth. It is a watering, yearning need but honestly a bit of a weaker feeling than cravings. It was still difficult to concentrate on anything but needing food. Check out this link on feelings of real hunger if you do not believe me:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-fuhrman-md/redefining-hunger_b_789980.html

I did not go past three days. I slowly reintroduced myself to real foods starting with the same vegetables and fruits I had been drinking, just in whole food form. Then, after a couple days of that, I reintroduced some meat and dairy products. Please, if you do this kind of thing, whether it is a water, juice, or any other type of food fast, talk to your doctor about it first if you are unsure of your health. Also, find out the best way to prepare and even come back off of the fast. If you do too much too quickly, you could actually die from shock.

What did I learn from my experience besides it is hard to fast (which you should know anyway)? I learned how to lean on God when I am in pain and turmoil. Yes, I was not really dying, but I really felt like it sometimes, especially when I had panic attacks. As this was a spiritual fast, I made sure to focus on God and pray several times a day, continually really. I did yoga (only yoga because I did not want to overexercise when I was depriving my body of the energy it would need for more). During yoga, I prayed and prayed, bringing my concerns about the process and life in general to God. Also, it is important to note that I tried to keep my mind open to God speaking back to me. It was not all about what I had to say. It was more about what God had to say. So, I kept a journal about things that I learned during that time and messages that seemed to repeat themselves over and over while I fasted, which I will share with you shortly in my next post.

It was an amazing, scary, and most importantly HUMBLING experience. I feel closer to God because of it.

Have a blessed day.