Lenten Devotional – April 6, 2023

Thursday, April 6, 2023
Maundy Thursday
I guess I haven’t learned that yet
by Shauna Niequist, Author
Devotional by Pastor Carrie Baylis

“It’s easy to want everything we do to be productive or valuable in an immediate way—”

In #34 we hear a story about our author learning to paint.  She was given a task to do something creative that wasn’t her usual genre of writing.  The idea of doing this was that it would be completely un-useful.  

I love the idea that we don’t need to have purpose or usefulness for everything we do.  Sometimes we just get to enjoy things for what they are and what experience they bring us, not because they are meeting a need.  Sabbath rest of course is supposed to have purpose, to connect with God, to develop a way that we can rest in Him and be renewed for what is yet to come.  The value of doing something that isn’t outwardly productive is the opportunity it gives us to slow ourselves down into a place that we can perhaps get comfortable without the constant doing or hustle.  That we can just simply be, let ourselves drift into the conscious presence of God who comes alongside of us when we are open to receiving it.  I hope that we can find our greatest sabbath rest when we can empty ourselves of the notion that we only have value when we are productive, trusting that God holds each of us with great value by simply being children of the heavenly Father.

Prayer: Come Lord Jesus, we pray that we can slow down enough to see your presence among us and rest in it, and that we come away from sabbath rest with a sense of renewed purpose in delighting you and living as you have called. Amen.