What I do. part II or Making the Bed

If there is one thing I thought I would never do all my life, it is making my bed. 

For 21 years I have been completely averse to the idea and have thought it was pointless.  It just gets messy again 17 hours later, right?  So what is the point?!  (Besides, my room is usually so messy that making the bed doesn’t really matter anyway.)

But, I am here to prove and confess that miracles do happen.  For the past two weeks now, I have faithfully made my bed every morning.  Sometimes joyfully, sometimes begrudgingly, but regardless it gets made and somehow the world is better for it.

So, you may ask – what stimulated this radical morning ritual?  Did I finally succumb to the twisted wisdom of so many moms across the world?  Did I lose a bet? Am I really that bored after graduation?  Or do I need counseling?

By no means! I have voluntarily, in a sound state of mind, adopted this discipline.  And yes, I consider it a spiritual discipline.

It all started two weeks ago when I realized that the thinking, “I shouldn’t clean _____ (insert bed, car, apartment, self) if it is just going to be dirty again.  What would be the point?” is terribly flawed and detrimental.  I think it was at a point where I had gone a couple of days without bathing and I don’t even remember the last time I washed my car. 

I had been having trouble with that line of thinking for a while and it all came to a head when I realized that such thinking (not cleaning something because it will just get dirty again) is about as theologically unsound as it gets. 

I believe in and worship a God who continually renews and cleans me and the whole world.  A God who went to drastic measures to cleanse humanity that He knew would spit on Him, deny Him, and reject Him over and over again.  A God who I know grants forgiveness when I fall on my knees every night, over and over again, begging for it.  A God of both justifying grace (His once for all redemptive, salvific sacrifice) and sustaining (or continual) grace.

So, what does making my bed have to do with all that?  Making my bed has not and will not become a good habit for me – simply doing something that some people for some reason think is nice.  Making my bed is a spiritual discipline I engage with intentionally in the attempt to unite my thinking and acting and feeling and being to God’s.  It reminds me of and illustrates for me a continual renewal that I see is characteristic of the heart of God.

Just take the book of Judges for example.  Over and over throughout the whole thing we see the people neglecting and forsaking God, and He does everything He can to bring them back - through enemies, judges, divine intervention.  The cycle repeats and repeats through many generations.  Even though they are not naturally a faithful people, God still reaches out to scrub the dirt off their feet over and over again. 

Not to mention Jesus bending over to wash Judas’ feet hours before his betrayal.

I don’t completely know why this is a characteristic of God’s, but my hope is that my small token of making my bed will not only remind me of it, but also help me truly connect with this divine activity in and around me.  It is a discipline that while simple on the outside, has deep and significant spiritual, mystical value.

Plus, my room looks so much nicer now.

What I do. part I or Sunset Sabbath

It is Lent – the Christian season of death, sacrifice, giving up, preparation (for Easter).  What this means practically for most Christian who adhere to traditions tied to Lent is that it is a process of denying something or fasting.

Fasting does not necessarily have a great connotation, because we (especially Americans) like to eat.  We naturally do not like to be disciplined (take any young child for an example) and fasting by nature is a discipline, no matter what you give up – food or not.

So, in a broader sense, Lent is a time in the lives of Christians where we are presented most vividly the importance of practicing discipline.  Although all of life for a Christian has some connection to discipline, Lent is a time where we see how bad (infrequent/half-hearted/unmotivated) we are at pursuing discipline and get a chance to renew our efforts.

And in particular, spiritual discipline – practices established in life for a particular higher purpose.

So, I thought I would share in the next two weeks two unusual spiritual disciplines I have put to practice in my life recently.  I am constantly on the lookout for disciplines that are interesting and not run-of-the-mill.  To be sure, there is nothing better than tried and true prayer, Bible reading, fasting, tithing, worship, etc., but there is something enlivening in a unique expression of such disciplines that really connects with God’s rhythm in and around your life.

I have found that these disciplines arise naturally in my life, but also push me to experience God in new, profound ways.  A comfort and a challenge.

So, the first spiritual discipline is Sunset Sabbath.

Sabbath is rest.  It was traditionally a day set aside every week where Jews would do no work.  In fact, it is a commandment.  Exodus 20:8-11 explains this practice and its reasoning, “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blesses the Sabbath day and consecrated it.”

Unfortunately, in our busy, constantly moving world, rest is often looked down on.  Many people no longer need to rest.  And modern technology allows us to do that – we can stay up all night, we can be complete work-a-holics.  And the demands of our lives often drive us to do that.  Not only are we too busy all day, we are too busy all week, putting in 17 hour days, 7 days a week.

Even the secular world is beginning to understand the importance of rest.  In the March 2010 issue of Wired, Brendan Koerner wrote an article in defense of facebook/twitter use in the workplace saying, “Humans weren’t designed to maintain a constant focus on assigned tasks.  We need periodic breaks to relieve our conscious minds of the pressure to perform (16).”  He explains how this ‘incubation’ can spur greater creativity.  If taking a break to muse on other random information can be helpful, I just wonder how much better mental/physical/emotional breaks can be when the focus of that time is turned to God.

In our prevalent busyness, can we find the time to focus on God?  Can we find the time to rest?

Even religious people are not exempt from this.  We can fill our schedules just as easily and fully with a plethora of religious work.  Even an accumulation of spiritual disciplines.  In fact, religious people are often among the most overworked.

Is it even important to rest?

The idea of a Sunset Sabbath is to take a set time out of the day everyday to rest.  I have found the time of sunset to be best, as it is in harmony with nature and provides a perfect timing.  It usually comes right before dinner (or right after if you are an early eater) and lasts around 30 minutes.  Not to mention it is absolutely beautiful.  This means that (almost) every day I go outside and watch the sunset for about 15-30 minutes.  The actual time varies according to daylight savings, but I always know when to go based on the great timekeeper of the sky.

That means that I usually have to drop whatever I am doing and just go watch the sunset (in fact I had to suddenly stop writing this just now to go do that – no joke!), but there is something really freeing in knowing that spending time in devotion to God is far more important than anything else I could be doing at this moment. 

It is a daily reminder that God is in ultimate control, that He cares for us and His world, and that there is nothing I can do to keep Him from lavishing His love on all creation.

Is Sabbath just about turning off, or going into standby mode?  Or just distracting our attention with something else to do?

I have found it is usually best to find the highest structure you can and Sabbath from the top.  A better view of the sunset and less people traffic helps to block out many distractions.  And there is no excuse for not doing this in nice weather.  If it is cold, windows work well to see out of.  I have run into the reality that there is not always a definite sunset – due to clouds mostly.  But even that time can be a good time to reflect.  Life is always beautiful, but not always pretty and sometimes a cloudy evening helps capture the mood better anyway.

How much rest do we need?  Is the rest we get really restful?

One great benefit I have found in sunset Sabbath is that it helps connect me to the rhythm of nature.  God created a world with natural seasons, months, and days as markers of the passing of time.  Our natural rhythm is disturbed by constant busyness or constant sloth.  But the sunset is nature’s transition time and a time I have found the world very much at peace. 

I think there is still a lot of value in weekly Sabbath, and I try very hard to rest one day a week, but I think it may be even more important to find ways to remind ourselves of our relationship to God throughout the day.  It may be even more true to the heart of the commandment to do whatever it is that connects us with the restful nature of God and experience His presence more fully, more regularly.  It is important to really stop and give attention and focus to God – to retune to God’s station.  That’s what sunset Sabbath has done for me.

It is tempting to stare right into the sun at this time, I would suggest not doing that – you may not see too many more sunsets.  But, in upping my ‘cheese’ factor tremendously, I would suggest this time is best used by staring directly into the Son.  And truly getting lost in Him.  Listen, sing, smell, see, feel, pray.  Rest.  And in all this, find God at the center.

P.S. I have often tried to take pictures of the sunset, but they never come out anywhere close to what I see.  Maybe that is because there are more colors in the sky than the makers of my camera ever imagined.