"And on Sundays, we go to Target"

By all appearances yesterday, I was tackling a huge Monday morning mound of wash, sweat-soaked running and cycling clothing, sheets, towels, and all the rest that needed laundering.  But what I was really doing was just taking back the Sabbath.

I thought about easily lightening the pile by throwing in a load or two on Sunday afternoon, but over the past year or so, I have begun to view Sundays in a different light.   The rest of our culture recognizes Sunday as a "day off," when all the while, God always intended it to be a "day of rest."  Our culture sees Sunday as the last day of the weekend.  God intended  it to be the first day of the week.

And our culture does not see anything different in us.

A "day off" mentality crowds a Sunday with leftovers from the week.  Those little items inflate in importance, expanding to fill every nook and cranny like trying to pack up the kids and their stuff in the car for a road trip.  And the "day of rest" that God designed is transformed into a thesaurus definition for the word "haste:"  urgency, acceleration, rush, dash, velocity, impetuosity, hurry, scurry, scramble, push, hustle, bustle, fuss and flurry.  We don't have time for God.  We don't have time to spend with each other. 

And we wake up already worn out on Monday morning and wonder, "What happened to our weekend?"

In the 2012 movie Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, the two main British characters watch as the people around them in this Middle Eastern land observe religious rituals.  "I don't know anyone who even goes to church anymore," one character says to the other.  "On Sundays, we go to Target," the other replies.

And our culture does not see anything different in us.  Because we are right behind them in line at the cashier.

Don't blame "culture" for secularizing Sunday.  We have done it ourselves.

Until I read their life stories, I didn't realize how countercultural Ruth Graham and Elisabeth Elliot were as young women at Wheaton College.  Both women had been raised to keep the Sabbath by getting all of their studying done in six days and basking in the freedom of a day of rest on Sundays.  Elisabeth Elliot mentions in her book The Shaping of A Christian Family (1992), the "guilt" she felt on Sunday afternoons, resting, relaxing, going for walks, having a leisurely cup of tea, all while her classmates were feverishly studying for a new week of classes.  Ruth's and Elisabeth's intentional efforts to get all of their homework done ahead of time was sweetened by the anticipation of having a weekly holiday and starting each week refreshed.  And throughout their incredible lives, what would they have done without His strength woven weekly into their hearts?

My oven has a "Sabbath mode."  My heart needs one too..

I have begun taking back the Sabbath, one step at a time.  I plan throughout the week what needs to get done -- errands, cleaning chores, grocery shopping, and yes, the laundry. And I pause and double-check on Saturdays. It has nothing to do with keeping rules, but keeping sacred what God has designed.  He has a reason for it.  A couple of years ago, I even began an "internet sabbath" on Sundays which I still keep to a certain extent, bypassing the extreme feeling of "urgency" to check emails and other enslaving tyrants of my time. (It is, by the way, radically liberating.)   Glitches still happen on Sundays from time to time, but even Jesus recognized the need to pull your sheep out of a ditch or help a neighbor with his.  ("So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."  Matthew 12.12)

And so, last Sunday morning, when a pastor asked my husband and me, "So what else do you have going on this busy Sunday?"  We just looked at each other and smiled.


Remember the Sabbath day
         and 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

Waiting for a delivery

I ordered some flag buntings online a few weeks ago to decorate our front porch next Fourth of July.  They were on sale with "just $5 shipping."   While I was filling out the order form, I realized I needed two packages, oh well, one for each side of the front door.  It was then I discovered each package was $5 shipping.  My enthusiasm began to wane as the cost kept adding up.  And that old deceitful voice inside me urged me on, "Oh, it will be so worth it."

The package arrived, and it was not.  In an effort to fake-antique the material, it appeared that the items had been left soaking a bit too long in dark roasted coffee, stained into a muddy lack of color. They were also smaller than what showed in the picture.  I felt duped.  I ended up returning them.  Again, shipping was on me, seven dollars more.  So, for $17, I ended up with nothing but buyer's remorse.

I think sometimes we view God's deliverance like my package --order, wait a few days, and expect it just to be dropped on our front doorstep, free and easy.  More often than not, in the process, we appear not to be waiting on the LORD, but some kind of cosmic Fed Ex truck with just what we ordered.  The object becomes exactly that -- an object -- and nothing to do with God or a deepening of our relationship with Him. The Bible calls for us to wait upon the LORD and to seek His deliverance.

God's deliverance is rarely a plucking out of a miry bog or the wilderness, but a strength and wisdom to move through our situation.  "LORD, show me how to navigate this dilemma."  It is not that we need to earn His deliverance by working for it, but trust Him in it and start moving through.  He works His purposes even in this, His hand upon us powerfully.  His deliverance usually comes in ways we never expect.

For what am I praying?  For what am I waiting?

God does not intend for us to be hanging out on the front porch, scanning the street for a familiar truck to bring it to us.  That is not God's kind of waiting.  For any of us who have ever worked in a restaurant or other service venue, we see "waiting" in a different light.  Think about the meaning of the word "waiting" as "waiting tables" or "waiting on customers."  And so, as we wait on God for His purposes and perfect timing, consider how to serve Him in it.

When we are in the waiting room, God doesn't give us a recliner to waste away the hours.  He always gives us something to do to prepare us for the delivery, or to work our way toward it.

It is not if it works out, but how God works it.

He will bring me forth to the light;
I shall behold His deliverance.

                        Micah 7.9

And if we knew, then what?

If I knew the outcome in all of this,
I would worry less,
but also probably cease to pray
       and trust God not at all.
It has less to do with the finish,
    but everything to do
    with my relationship with Him.

But I am like an olive tree
     in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
     for ever and ever.

                        Psalm 52.8

(Thriving,
      evergreen,
   bearing fruit,
no matter what.)

Not just that You would, but that You are

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving...

                                        Psalm 50.14

For years, I couldn't quite understand the phrase "sacrifice of thanksgiving."  If one is thankful for something, how can that be a sacrifice?  Surely praise is a more appropriate response for what we are thankful.

And then in the midst of a desperate situation, I found myself praying, "O LORD, that You would do this... that You would make that to happen."  I stopped mid-sentence.  How would a thankful heart pray?  "Thank you that You are doing this...or that."

A sacrifice of thanksgiving is not after the "answer" has arrived on our doorstep, but in the midst of God's working, thanking Him for what He is doing now.  Even when I don't understand.  And in the process, I am not telling God what to do and how to do it, but trusting Him and thanking Him for what He is doing.  It is praying from a stance of thankfulness, not placing before Him praise for what we consider good, but trusting God in what we cannot see yet, trusting Him in what we cannot possibly know, giving God the elbow room to work things out His way and in His great timing, and thanking Him even before we know the outcome.  In a sacrifice of thanksgiving, our focus is not just on the object of our prayer, but on Him.  Thanking Him not just for the doing, but Who He is.

And so I pray, not "O God, that You would provide him an apartment," but "Thank you that You are providing him with a place to live and guiding him to it."  Not, "O LORD, that You would change her heart," but "Thank You that You are changing her heart."

And somehow in the process, He changes mine.

He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice
                      honors Me,
to him who orders his way aright
I will show the salvation of God.

                                Psalm 50.23

If you see something, say something

As we walked into Kroger last week, my husband grabbed a grocery cart as I pulled out my list.  We just needed a few items for a meal for some last minute guests -- a couple of tomatoes, another package of hamburger buns, an extra can of baked beans, and a bag of chips.

When I looked up, there was a woman placing a bag of lettuce into her cart in the produce aisle.  As she turned, I saw a large black mark on her neck.  A red flag waved in my thoughts.  Has someone hurt this woman?  I wondered.  By then, she had moved into a different section of the store.

Just a few minutes later, our cart inadvertently collided with hers in the bread aisle.  "Oh, I'm sorry," Bill said. "No, no, no, it was MY fault," the woman said. "I am to blame. It was MY fault.  I am to blame," she repeated.  It was a bit of an overreaction to a very slight incident.  And at that point, I also noticed that she was wearing sunglasses inside the store.

As the carts were untangled and we moved on, I kept thinking, "dark glasses, a large bruise, my fault, my fault, my fault."  These elements fit together into a picture of some type of abuse.

And I had no idea what to say.

Everyone of us is surrounded by a great variety of suffering that others face.  It doesn't have to be abuse, but even the overbearing weight of loneliness or depression, overwhelming family conflicts or the desperation of unemployment.  As a friend of mine told me, "If you have the eyes of God, you will run into people with need."

What could I say that would be helpful?  What could I do that would show I care?  I do not think quickly on my feet.  But I want to know how to respond, so I asked several professionals.

*One counselor told me to make a personal connection with the person, giving them the opportunity to respond without being threatened.  "Phew, it's such a hot day.  Hope you are doing OK."  Any kind of personal attention provides the opportunity to open up conversation.  "Even if they don't respond, they won't forget it" the counselor said.  "It plants a seed that there are people who care and can help."

*Carry cards from local ministries who help people in need.  Offer to place a call.

*One friend also carries a little bit of cash, not for a hand out, but to transport the person in need to those who can help.  In one instance, she said to a homeless woman who was being harassed on the street, "I would like to pay for a cab for you to go to a safe place," she told the woman. "May I do that?"  She had the addresses of several help ministries.  And the desperate woman took her up on it.

*I once knew a woman who kept her minivan stocked with bags of snacks to provide a ready response to someone who just might need something to eat.

*Even a kind word in the midst of desperation may plant hope in a person's heart.  "You may be the only one to intercept," a physician told me.  Ask them, "Are you OK?  Is there anything I can do for you?"  Call the police if they are in imminent danger.

When our girls were younger, we used to "play-act" difficult situations with them, so that when a situation would arise, they would know exactly what to do and say.  I think that we need to do the same, knowing, preparing, thinking through what to do when God places on our path the opportunity to help someone.

If you see something, know what to say.  It may make all the difference in someone's life.  I think of those young girls in Cleveland who were locked away for a decade.  How many opportunities were missed to intervene and help them?

In God's eyes, there are no strangers.  Love God.  Love others.  There is no seam in-between.


"Which of these three, do you think,
proved neighbor to the man
who fell among the robbers?"
He said, "The one who showed mercy on him."
And Jesus said to him,
         "Go and do likewise."

                   Luke 10. 36-37

I'd love to hear how you have responded in situations.  It would be a great help to all of us.  Please click "comments."