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Aug 1, 2024

Augustine of Hippo

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Busyness has become a coveted status symbol in our time. It’s now chic and trendy to be busy. Busy has become the default response to the customary “How are you doing?” question. I suspect we talk about busyness so much because it gives us some measure of existential reassurance. When we are busy, it makes us feel important and sought after. Much of our busyness, let’s be honest, is self-imposed. We don’t have to live this way. We really don’t!
One practice that distinguished God’s people in the Old Testament was Sabbath-keeping. This Sabbath provision was mandated soon after God’s people were released after four hundred years of Egyptian slavery. The only thing God’s people had known for four centuries was work. The command to enter a day of rest must have seemed to them exquisitely liberating. God never intended people to work 24/7. Even God took the seventh day off!

Sabbath keeping has two primary purposes in Scripture. One is worship. No matter how much we seek to be present to God throughout the week, our everyday pursuits have a way of causing slippage in the relationship. We gather for worship to invite God to recalibrate our bodies and souls. The other purpose in Sabbath is rest. Sabbath offers respite from the tyranny of things that consume us the other six days. If we are perpetually in motion, everything takes on exaggerated importance.

Enter God’s rest today. Center your day in God’s Word. Make this fifth century prayer from Augustine of Hippo your request to God. Take a long walk. Enjoy a leisurely meal with family or friends. Rest!

O Lord, full of compassion, I commend myself unto Thee, in whom I am, and live, and know. Be the goal of my pilgrimage and my rest along the way. Let my soul take refuge from the crowding turmoil of worldly thoughts beneath the shadow of Thy wings; let my heart, this sea of restless waves, find peace in Thee, O God. Thou bounteous giver of all good gifts, give to this weary one refreshing food; gather my distracted thoughts and powers into harmony again and set this prisoner free. See, he stands at Thy door and knocks; be it opened to me, that I may enter with a free step and quickened by Thee. For Thou are the well-spring of life, the light of eternal brightness, wherein the just live who love Thee. Be it unto me according to Thy word! Amen.

Carl J. Bunsen, Prayers, 1871, (Slightly adapted).

Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.