Here we go...writing and work.

I recently came under the impression that I need to write. I need to write to get stuff out and off my chest. I need to write to release what is building up inside of me. I need to write. The problem is: I don't like to write. That's right, I said it, I don't like it. I'd rather talk. Talking is so much easier, and it's way more interactive (provided I listen at least as much as I talk).

Right now I'm in grad school, so I have to write. Sometimes I'm passionate about a subject and the words just leap from my head on to the document. But more often, it is painfully extracted from my head through my fingers into the paper. This is why I often don't like to write: I may not like what I'm writing about.

It's amazing how much easier it is to write or do something that you actually want to do. This motivation can come from deep within, or be an outgoing expression of an interest. Either way it is much easier to write when it comes flowing out naturally.

I think work is the same way. When it is a passion, work comes naturally, easily. It's still work, but somehow it feels different. You feel strangely alive while working and reaching your accomplishment. This is when you know you reached that optimum place of work with passion.

What are you passionate about? What makes you come alive? How can you incorporate that feeling into your everyday work? 

Sabbath: rest with God

Do you feel like you go non-stop week to week. Do you wake up tired? Are you drowsy or nodding off part way through the day?  Maybe you need to rest. Not just sleep. Maybe you need time off, not just from work.

God sets up the pattern in Genesis 2 of rest after work. Not that He needs the rest...

"Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done."

And in one of the most famous passages, He choose to include it in the 10 Commandments: Exodus 20

“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." 

One of our elders pointed out to me that God made man on the 6th day. So God's last day of the week was a day of rest, and man-kinds first day was God's day of rest.  We were made to be in relationship with Him. To walk with Him and talk with Him. If you are so busy that you can't slow down for your relationship with him, if you feel stagnant, if you feel like you aren't growing in Him, slow down. Stop. Take a rest. Find your rest in Him and He will draw close to you as you draw near to Him. 

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:28-29