Sabbath Day

I really like Lent. Which I guess is a little weird, because it isn't a particularly happy season, but I really do like it. I like its reflectiveness, its challenge to us to think about things we normally push away in favor of sunshine and rainbows. I like its preparation for and expectation of Holy Week and the resurrection.

Traditionally, Lent involves giving something up. Certain foods and technologies are popular things to do away with for the forty days of Lent. One of my friends and I were talking about what we were going to give up before chapel on Ash Wednesday. We each wanted to do something meaningful, and as our pastor challenged us during chapel, something that will help us grow closer to God. My friend mentioned a thought she'd had, I asked her if she wanted someone to take the challenge with her, and she said, "Let's do it."

And so I came to be giving up doing homework on Sundays for Lent. I think this will be an interesting challenge – hard in some ways, as I'll have to be disciplined enough to work on more of it than I usually do on Fridays and Saturdays – and one that's good for me. In all honesty, I'm not very good at remembering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy. I don't always set it apart from the other days of the week. I go to church, sure, but other than that... too often it's just another day.

Lent is a time of repentance and renewal, preparing us for the Easter resurrection. It lasts forty days – if you actually grab a calendar and count, though, the total number will be more than forty. This is because, as my devotional book tells me, the Sundays during Lent aren't counted in the forty days. Why not? Not because Sundays don't count as a day, but because Sundays during Lent are resurrection celebrations that occur throughout the season. They're Sabbaths. Time for rest and renewal. During this season of Lent, my friend and I have challenged each other and ourselves to set them apart. To remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, and to hold one another accountable to that. It might not be easy, but easy isn't the point. The point of Lent isn't giving something up, however easy or difficult it may be. The point is rising again on Easter Sunday.

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

– Exodus 20:8-11

Challenge accepted.