Rest And The Space Time Continuum

Last week I was texting with two different pastor friends of mine at the same time.  I was bouncing between talking with one about getting our families together, while at the same time, talking with the other about the timing of God working in situations.  As I am sure you can see where this is going, I sent the wrong text to the wrong person.  Now, this is not the first time I’ve accidentally done this.  Over the past 20 years or so I’ve been texting, I have made that mistake more than a few times.  And this time wasn’t bad or scandalous or anything like that, but it was this moment where I realized I had done the wrong thing and it would have been very confusing for the person getting this picture.

This is where this is different compared to the past 20 years or so of texting.  As soon as I realize I did it, I noticed with the new update for iPhones, you can unsend a text.

I’m not sure how it is possible, but yes, it seems as though you can literally rewind time just a few moments and take back an error.  So, I used that little feature, apparently I rewound the spacetime continuum, unsent the message and all was good.

Wouldn’t that be nice if that little feature existed in real life.  If we could immediately recognize our errors, rewind time, undo or choose differently in situations or circumstances when we mess up and move on like nothing happened.

But I had the realization, that isn’t real life.  You can’t undo things you did.  You can’t actually rewind time and change how you did something in the past.  Unless you are Marty McFly, you have a DeLorean and a flux capacitor, you can only make changes moving forward.

Though I did see on the O’Reilly Auto Parts page they have some details about getting a Flux Capacitor…so that’s fun…oreillyauto.com/flux-capacitor

Over time there are lots of changes you have made.  You likely do lots of things differently than you did years ago.  As we get older, we hopefully grow and learn.  We hopefully become more intentional about how we live and operate, and how we rest and recuperate.

As you know we are in this Sabbath Experiment where we are looking at the ideas of following in the rhythm of God and the scriptures, to find rest and identity on a weekly basis in God.  To pause our normal pace and rhythm of life to be renewed and restored by resting in God.  This is a countercultural way to live and operate…and it’s not new.  It’s ancient.  Stretching back to the creation story in Genesis.

With that, we don’t need to wait for an update, like my iPhone, we can make the change now.

We can choose to stop and to rest in Jesus.

As our friend Matt Tuggle shared yesterday, when Jesus shares to those listening that they should come to him, all who are weary and heavy burdened and he will give them rest.  It wasn’t a one time come to Jesus, or an annual touch base with Jesus, it was a call to go to him on a regular basis and there we will find the rest that our heart and mind, our body and soul are looking for.

I know many of you tried to practice some sort of sabbath this past week.

I know for some of you it may have been great…and for some of you it may have been harder than you anticipated.

Almost every new thing we try, will come with some new challenges.  New practices or disciplines in our faith are not always easy to do, but rarely are things that are easily done worth doing or last.  Continue to train in the ways of Jesus, to follow in his rhythms, and know that he is the one that brings the life, salvation and healing we all need.

You can’t go back and make up for the ways we’ve rested poorly in the past, we have no control over the space time continuum, but we can become more intentional about how we rest moving forward.

If you want to follow along in our Sabbath Experiment, I invite you to check out our webpage, thechapelatseaside.com/sabbath

We have lots of resources, recommended books, additional teachings, podcasts, and more.

Let us know if you have any questions or need anything.

Blessings.

Andrew