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How To Walk On The Path Of Peace (Part 3)
As you grow in wisdom, you will release, more and more, self-limiting beliefs, which are transient, and become aware of the powerful role you play in bringing change to the whole.
Through your meditations knowledge of eternal principles is...
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Anxious? There is Help
Does anxiety get you down? There is more than one way to beat this problem.
If your anxiety is mild you may be able to work through it on your own. Find out what makes you anxious. Avoid situations that cause anxiety. Learn how to think...
Tuning Out The "Radio Voice"
It would be impossible to list all of the things people have
considered crucial to success in life. Honesty, energy, bonding,
modeling, control of fear...all are important. For my whole
life, I've searched for the answers in this arena, and...
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How to get that 'it' factor happening
You know when you meet charismatic and compelling people. They exude a personal power that's hard to miss. You can 'feel' their presence as they enter a room and both male and female heads turn. For some, this magnetism is as natural as organic food...
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Remember the Sabbath
Sabbath-keeping is an essential component of the Judeo-Christian
story. And in our fast-paced, "you snooze, you lose" culture, it
ought to be reclaimed as essential component of the human story
as well.
The admonition to keep Sabbath harkens to the earliest Hebrew
texts, first with the mention of God's resting on the seventh
day in the creation story, followed by the story of God raining
manna down from heaven in Exodus 16, promising the Israelites
bread for six days as long as they would honor a day of rest on
the seventh. There are other references to resting throughout
Hebrew Scripture, not only for people but also for animals, and
including the practice of leaving a field uncultivated every
seventh year.
Sabbath-keeping also made it into the "Top 10" of biblical
mandates with its placement in the Ten Commandments as Number
Four. It is significant to note that in the listing of
commandments, the other nine all begin with "Thou shalt not" do
this or that, but regarding the Sabbath it begins, "Remember the
Sabbath..."
By Jesus' time, some of the Jewish leaders were taking the
Sabbath too literally. They used it against people instead of as
a gift from God for the sake of people, and they complained
whenever they perceived that Jesus and his disciples were
breaking the Sabbath by healing people or plucking grain. Jesus,
a devout Jew, responded by reminding them that the Sabbath, like
any Law, was made for the sake of humanity; humanity wasn't
created for the sake of the Sabbath.
Modern Jews observe Sabbath, or Shabbat, from sundown Friday to
sundown Saturday. Some embrace the commandment to "keep and
remember" the Sabbath as a means of becoming conscious of the
day, of God, and to act and refrain from acting based on that
remembering. As such, Shabbat offers an opportunity to practice
living intentionally, becoming conscious of who we really are,
and, as Abraham Heschel said, "to bring together the scattered
forces of the self."
Christians have also woven Sabbath into our faith experience as
well, though, to our detriment, not as intentionally as our
Jewish brothers and
sisters. Many Christians observe Sabbath in
various ways on Sundays, including my own family, who practiced
our own sort of Sabbath ritual during my childhood.
After worship we would spend the day together as a family,
taking naps, playing games, reading books, and going for drives
in nearby rural areas. My siblings eventually grew bored with
the limited company of our family, and their combined teen angst
won out over my parent's attempts to observe a family Sabbath,
and even though we still went to church together, the rest of
our Sundays soon became just a day like any other, much to our
later regret.
Because we are part of such a fast-paced society of "doing" we
rarely take the time for just "being" - and in so doing, many of
us have lost the gift that Sabbath can bring to our lives, which
is why I've been more intentional about practicing Sabbath in my
own life.
Sabbath-keeping doesn't need to be literal or rigid. It was
never intended that way - which is perhaps why, as I mentioned
earlier, it begins with "Remember" instead of "Thou shalt not"
in the list of the Ten Commandments. But it should be treated
with reverence, both for God and for self.
So what might Sabbath-keeping look like? Maybe it could be
something as simple setting aside a concentrated time of rest,
meditation, or leisure once a week, or taking time in smaller
doses throughout the week. Or it could be a lazy Sunday
afternoon with family - cell phones, televisions, and computers
turned off. And if Sunday is the only day you have to do laundry
and pay bills, perhaps a regular evening walk with a loved one
can be another way to experience Sabbath.
Whatever the case, the key isn't necessarily when or how one
observes Sabbath time (if one is not of the Jewish tradition).
The important thing is to put it into practice in some way,
shape or form in our lives, in order "to bring back the
scattered forces of the self."
About the author:
Susan Ryder really enjoys her leisure/sabbath time, and is an
author on a site for Writers
(http://www.Writing.Com/)
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