Lenten Devotional – March 28, 2023

Tuesday, March 28, 2023
How are you doing?
Devotion by Cheryl Mahon

Pastor Travis and I touch base once each week. We reflect and debrief on past church activities, plan upcoming activities and dream about future activities. After the first couple weeks of our Lenten journey, he asked me how my sabbath time was going. At the beginning of this Lenten season, I chose to hold my sabbath practices starting on Friday evenings through Saturday evenings since I currently work on Sundays.
 
I’ll start by telling you that when I make an effort to get household and work duties done so that I can devote time to rest in God’s presence and enjoy the company of family and friends for a full 24-hour period, it truly does rejuvenate me! It also brings an element of anticipation that makes me smile. Have I done it every week thus far? No. Of course not.
 
We are in the middle of remodeling our master bathroom. This means that sometimes, I’ve had to do household tasks on Saturday. Sometimes I have to work with contractors in the morning and work in the evening or on Saturday. I know that I will have commitments outside of my family here and there on future Saturdays during the year. I’m not always going to be able to set aside a full 24-hour period of rest.
 
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the Lenten devotions written by various members of our FLC community thus far. I’m sure there are more great insights to come! There is obviously much reading material on practicing the Sabbath. Devotion writers have given great suggestions on how to set aside time for sabbath practice. The one thing that I now know for sure is that all humans struggle to make this happen. I like how one author explained that we need to practice sabbath just like learning any skill. I do plan to continue practicing sabbath!

Prayer: God you have commanded us to honor the Sabbath because you want us to know freedom. Guide us in our worship that we might leave behind anything that prevents us from living into full and unencumbered worship of you. In Jesus’ name.