Stand Still

Do you have a boring job? I love my job, but I have to admit that sometimes I get sleepy at work. The other day I had to quit working on the sermon I was writing and get up and move around (a much needed straightening of my office). Its not a good sign when you fall asleep writing a sermon; it likely means that people will fall asleep listening to it! If you fall asleep at your job, here are some good excuses that you can use on your boss--

• "It’s OK, I’m still billing clients."
• "They said at the blood bank this might happen."
• "Whew! I must have left the top off that White-Out!"
• "I wasn’t sleeping—I was meditating on our vision statement."

Falling asleep may not indicate that our job is boring; it may just be reminding us that we aren’t getting enough sleep. I’m told that the average adult needs 8 to 8.5 hours of sleep each night and teens 9 to 9.5 of sleep! Do you know anyone who actually gets that? I usually get about 6.5, so I’m an hour or so in deficit. Last night it was a lot less because I was up until almost 1:00 a.m. painting. Actually, I kept painting because I was listening to The Shack audiobook, but I’ll write about the book another time. (If you’ve ever wondered whether you can paint, laugh and cry at the same time, you can).

Our culture doesn’t rest well. Some cultures take 2 hours in the middle of the day for lunch and a nap ("siesta" in Hispanic countries, "bhat-ghum" in parts of India or "xiuxi" in China). If we had two hours off in the middle of the day, we would be invariably work out, run errands, go shopping… or maybe get a part time job! We just don’t rest well. When we take a vacation, we need a vacation to rest up from the vacation. Mondays are, well Monday, because we rush so much during the weekends that it wears us out.

It has been a long time since we made the mistake of seeing Sunday as “the Sabbath.” Technically, Sunday isn’t the same as the Sabbath, but maybe we would be better off if we treated in that way. Maybe we need to spend more time quieted before God. Psalm 131 says--

1 My heart is not proud, O Lord,my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.