The image of a hamster wheel seems quite appropriate for most of what we spend our lives doing. How much of your day, week, year, and life feels like it could be accomplished on auto-pilot because it is so routine? There are multiple stages involved in exiting this circular cultural monotony in order to answer God's call to Sabbath. Do not fool yourself into believing that Sabbath is either a simple or once-and-for-all choice.
First is our personal choice- usually built on some combination of desperation, hope, and inspiration - to consciously choose more attentive participation in the ordinariness of here and now. When all is said and done, the present moment is what we have. The present moment, and its surrounding elements (people and all of creation in each moment), are the only things to which we can commit our presence.
Next come the desire and willingness to let go of our feelings of anxiety and inferiority regarding all those who seem capable of keeping more juggling balls in the air than can we - those who read, run, think, act, and finish before we even figure out how to play the game. Do you remember that boy or girl who always finished things (games, tests, puzzles, or other challenges) more quickly and/or more accurately than you? Sabbath-keeping requires that we neither judge ourselves nor begrudge others who appear to have, do, and enjoy more.
Next comes the examination of those who take shortcuts or even cheat to get ahead of us. That person who speeds and/or passes on the double-yellow or in the emergency lane: so what? The co-worker or competitor who cuts corners, providing an inferior product or service in order to shirk responsibility or steal our clients: let them go. Time will catch up with them. Don’t let your energy-sapping angst over their temporary gain catch up with you.
As long as we are angry, anxious, and focused on our own sense of “behindness” in relation to others, we can never fully abandon ourselves to Sabbath practice or rest. There can be no opportunity for focusing on what God has in store for us if we cannot find ways and places to cease and desist in our own busyness. Scores, measurement, and competition are three roadblocks to the path of God’s intended purpose for our lives. Giving them up for a period of time is our only hope to conceive what God has in store.
When did you last choose to step off the wheel?
© 2011 Todd Jenkins
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