Lenten Devotional – Feb 25, 2023

Saturday, February 25, 2023
The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel
Lenten Devotional by Pastor Travis

Heschel writes, “All our life should be a pilgrimage to the seventh day; the thought and appreciation of what this day may bring to us should ever be present in our minds.” “It is as if the command; Do not covet things of space, we’re correlated with the unspoken word; Do covet things of time.”
 
What would it be like if every day of the week, throughout our work and appointments, we had one eye on the coming Sabbath. I think that’s the gift of this weekly day of rest and prayer. When it is fully enjoyed, it gives us energy and patience and strength for the other six days. Is that the gift God intends for us, that knowing we have just come from a day of rest and joy and that another is on the way, we may fully do our work without succumbing to its burden?
 
I have tasted the gift of sabbath, but not every week. This book makes me want to receive this gift more regularly, trusting in the gift God would give me through a regular time of rest, play and prayer. Heschel doesn’t really tell us what to do on the Sabbath. It’s not about that kind of rigid obedience. It is likely different for all of us. He describes it so beautifully though, that I want it more in my life.
 
He ends his book with this powerful word. “On the Sabbath it is given us to share in the holiness that is in the heart of time. Even when the soul is seared, even when no prayer can come out of our tightened throats, the clean, silent rest of the Sabbath leads us to a realm of endless peace, or to the beginning of an awareness of what eternity means.”
 
Prayer:
Oh Lord, give me sabbath. Let the rest and renewal of a day with you seep into every day of my week. In Jesus’ name. Amen.