Accidental Sabbath

Final Project Tally:
4 complete
1 remaining

I know it wasn't really an accident, but neither was it my idea. Not at first.

So it started early Sunday morning after getting myself up for the early service at WCB. I had an appointment that afternoon with the folks who are taking me in for the summer, and was hoping to get some of my stuff packed to take over there ahead of the post-finals rush.

So after church and one last meeting with the Wild at Heart group, I returned to my room to pack... except that a few hours earlier, I learned that this was the day of the vote as to whether or not we move forward with the plan to build the new church building. Since I'm an actual member there, I felt I should be part of that.

The vote was at noon... which only left me about an hour in my room before the meeting. Instead of packing and/or cleaning, I decided to try and blog (can you guess how well that went?). I wanted to write about my growing interest in how men and women relate to each other after the various books I've been reading. ..yeah.. that's gonna be a whole 'nother entry..

Moving on: the meeting lasted about an hour. At the very end of which, just before the ballots , someone spoke up about his concern that the new building wasn't going to be big enough. I was surprised, but he actually swayed my opinion. If the new building is only slightly beyond our current needs, how much more room for future growth is there?

I'm digressing again...

After the meeting, I met Matt and Rayleene at Taco Johns, where Tom wandered in late in the meal. My initial companions took off, and I stuck with the old friend I'd not seen in months for a while.

This left me just enough time to Google the directions to my summer home. Which, as it turns out, even though the address says that it's in Wentworth, turning toward Wentworth actually took me in the opposite direction of my destination.

I hadn't met them before a freak meeting at McDonalds about a week ago when Sarah pointed them out and introduced us. Everyone I told who I'd be staying with responded with some variation of "lucky!" or "I'm so jealous!"

Wow. Not only are Marvin and Laura great people, but their home.... the house... It's a beautiful house. It's a Big, beautiful house. A big, beautiful, Lake-side house! (sorry, Mom. You may not see much of me this summer)

After a nice talk/tour, I headed back to Madison, already late for the Bring Your Own Meat party. And on that drive back is when it struck me that I'd not done anything that could be considered productive all day. I considered skipping out on the BYOM party... but then I started having flashbacks. Mostly within a week or two.

I've heard it come up a few times from a couple different sources now: a reminder of God's command to keep the Sabbath holy. To take a day off once a week. No really, like totally off.

I had about a 20 minute drive to ponder this. I knew this was important. It did make His top ten, after all. So I decided to try. Something to the extent of "not wanting our relationship to suffer just because I was busy." (of course I've had a few days now to consider how to say that.. It started out kinda selfish.. more like "if I do what He wants, He'll help me get through finals, like I want to")

So I spent the next hour or so with my friends, eating meat and playing soccer. It was good. I'm sure it was my last chance to see several of them. (though quite a few, it seems are going to linger here in the Madison area)

After the Meat party, things got more interesting... Back in my room, with little to distract me from my impending deadlines, my thoughts quickly swayed from "this Sabbath thing isn't so hard" to "am I crazy?!" I had to make myself look it up to remind myself that the command was really there.

I could have emptied my head into the movies out in the lobby, but I was pretty sure that vegetating the day away wasn't really what He had in mind for the 7th day either. I wound up spending the rest of the evening listening to DM LIve and picking up my room a little. Yeah, technically, that's work too, but not the pressured/frenzied kind. Actually, it helped me to have something else besides the radio to focus on; made it easier to convert fear to trust.

I don't want to make it sound like a trade of services, but I know He's been with me this week ever since. Taking the whole day away from my school work.. Logic said I was being foolish, and yet... 4 out of 5 projects in on time. The 5th due tomorrow afternoon. I know He's been there, giving me the strength to keep getting up early and pushing myself forward.

I'm really not sure how I'm going to pull this last one off, but I'm not really worried.

hmm... seems like I'm not capable of writing a short blog.. more time 'wasted'? Time will tell.

Back to work.