What fills your tank?
This week, today is my Sabbath.
Because of the nature of my life right now, Sabbath happens on different days, but I’m aiming for a consistent Monday. I’ve found that an expected day provides a sense of stability for my family, and it ensures that I actually honor the day.
I think one of the reasons God proclaimed a specific day for Sabbath, and specific scheduled times for the celebrations was that if He had just said, “make sure you take a day a week, and a couple of weeks a year, to stop”, the Israelites would have been like us and not ever gotten around to making it happen. And not stopping would have killed them…just like it’s killing us!
The commands are given because God loves us. Including the command to stop.
Recently I was asked by a friend, “What gives you joy?” He wanted to know what it was that filled my tank, or what I would do regularly to provide the reserve I needed for the work I did. I think this is part of what Sabbath is about—a time to fill our tanks and not deplete them.
So I considered that, and came up with eight things that fill me with high octane fuel. These are kinds of things that you can find me doing a lot of on my once a week Sabbath, and that I try to do at least a little Cam4 of once a day:
1. Worshiping: Praise and prayer must be the key to my day, and my life.
2. Word(ing): Looking for a word from God from the Word of God every day.
3. Walking: Exercise I can do without much thought or prep; good for my body, clears my head, refreshes my soul.
4. Writing: This enlivens me—and it serves others; it expresses a gift that needs to be let out for my own health, even if nobody is reading.
5. Wrestling: I love reading and tackling big concepts and then bantering with others about them; wrestling until I come away with something solid.
6. Waiting: Weekly Sabbath must be a regular part of my life. Spending a day when I’m not “in charge of the world”; spending a real day away from email, cell phone calls, and expectations to get something done; then simply loving my God, my family, and my friends.
7. Wandering: As an introvert, I have a deep need to just drive somewhere, walk around, visit a bookstore or coffee shop, watch a movie, or read some brain candy—all without any expectation of significant social interaction (unless it’s with family or close friends).
8. Wondering: If I’m not dreaming about the future, I may be breathing but I’m already dead.
What are the things that give you energy? When do you pull away from the world to recharge your life with your Lord?