Jul 26

Written by: Michael A. Milton
7/26/2008 8:23 AM

Restoring the Rhythms of Life 

Traveling can really mess up your balance. Hotel problems in one city, long security lines in another city, rental cars that smell like ashtrays and airports with no free wi-fi. These things, especially when they are combined together, try to take your joy from you!

Sometimes I have to remind myself that it is a small price to pay to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to people around the country. One thing is for sure about traveling: it can mess up your rhythm of life.

It’s not just the time zone changes, it is the ordinary day-to-day routines that help shape and form the structure in which life is lived.   In God’s Word there is a remedy. It is the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the centering point for God’s people. Wherever they are, whatever they are doing, whatever king is ruling or whatever oppressor is controlling them, they always had the Sabbath.  God told Moses to remind the people of this. We read in Leviticus 23:3:

Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.

 Jesus reminds us that this was not to be a bondage to the people of God, but just the opposite! The Sabbath, the Lord said, was made for man (Mark 2:27). And then Jesus said: 

So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28 ESV). 

We find order then by centering our lives, not only on a one-in-seven holy day of worship and rest dedicated to God, but also incarnationally in the Person of Jesus. He is our Sabbath rest. He is the object of our Sabbath worship. He, rather than a day, is the centering point of life that brings balance.

This is what the writer to the Hebrews meant when he wrote to the people still trying to order their lives around only a day. He wrote: 

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9). 

That rest, for now, for eternity, is Jesus of Nazareth.  For those disoriented, from travel in airports, or travel along life's sometimes complicated pathways, Jesus Christ is the Sabbath we need.

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