Grateful for The Sabbath Experience

My daughter, Jess, during Brighton Heights Clean-up Day

Yesterday, I was grateful for The Sabbath Experience! More than usual, actually.

Why?

Because, when I got home from church, I headed right to bed and slept for a couple of hours. And I did it without guilt! I was exhausted.

On Saturday morning, I got up early and headed out to Brighton Heights, the area of the city where we go to church. My daughter, Jess, and granddaughter, Laura, joined me, along with some other people from our church and more from the community. We were there for a purpose ... to clean up the debris littering the streets and sidewalks. Unfortunately, it was raining. And cold. And, I admit it, I was pretty miserable.

My body resisted the constant bending to retrieve the hundreds of cigarette butts, soda cans, plastic water bottles, rubber gloves, syringes (yes, I was careful and was wearing gloves), etc. My mantra became, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," as my back and legs tightened up in the damp weather. I was doing this as my contribution to Earth Day, after all.

Surprisingly, I didn't feel all that badly on Sunday morning. However, by the time I got home on Sunday afternoon, I was beat. Which brings us back to the reason I was more grateful than usual for the Sabbath. I needed to rest. Throughout the remainder of the day and evening, I was able to ignore my lengthy to-do list, and focus on one thing ... resting. Which is exactly what I did. Without guilt. After all, that is part of my Sabbath Experience.

When is the last time you focused on Sabbath rest?