It was the first time in my life I took a day off from my smartphone.
Knowing me full well, Cliff was shocked.
“What?!”
After all, he knows me to be a maximizer-achiever. Till today, he jokes that even my hobbies are eye-rollingly “purposeful.”
But when my fingers and both my wrists began to hurt, when the Occupational therapist said the damage from the repetitive strain of working from it was equivalent to the damage of a slight fracture, I knew this was God’s loudhailer to me- finally come through.
Hebrews 12:6: “because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
Two weeks ago, when even lightly touching my iphone triggered pain up to my shoulders, God summoned a holy disdain for what I’d been addicted to- work.
As I put my phone away, I experienced a bizarre phenomenon- first a shaky withdrawal, then a consuming peace.
For the first time in years, I sat at a coffee shop waiting for my family to show up for ten long minutes, idly- without scrolling, recording, typing.
For the first time, no longer constantly replying, checking, following up with messages, I realized how all those pockets of time robbed me from being fully present with my kids,
While many of us practice Sabbath as being away from work, how many of us can confess that even replying to textes, checking social media- have, in this day and age, become mental loads and thus, “work” of their own?
I’d forgotten, that Sabbath is a counter-cultural effort, a clarion call of silence, a Selah and solitude breaking into a crazed, raucous world.
I love what one of my favorite authors Shelly Miller says, “Silence disrobes busyness and makes it holy.”
With my wrists injured, I had to carefully decide, moment to moment, what was worth typing, replying to.
Even now, that pause re-orients my heart. That Selah releases my self-control into a God whom I must trust with my limitations.
As you enter into the weekend, could the extravagant squander of time for the Sabbath be the most fruitful thing you could do for yourself and yr loved ones? ❤️