Sabbath

Lately I've been on an internal quest for peace.

I've also begun to realize my thoughts have been leaning more and more towards sounding hippie. I'm still me everyone, don't worry.

During CREW training Lynn taught us about taking Sabbath days. we learned about the different types of rest: physical rest, heart rest and soul rest. Physical rest, I can deal with, between good sleeps at billets and sleeping in the van- pretty sure that's good to go. It's the heart and soul rest that has me curious.

I suppose I'd say heart and soul rest are found when your heartbeat slows, your mind isn't moving quickly, your body is relaxed and there is a calm sense of joy at your core.

Something Lynn asked us to think about during training was how we were planning to achieve heart and soul rest. My answer was to listen to my iPod...and something else I can't remember. But recently I've found a restlessness inside myself that music can't really appease. So it's made me think about whether or not listening to iPod is truly the most restful action for my heart/soul.

I talked to my sister yesterday, and she had an interesting insight to share with me; she doesn't listen to any music on her sabbath. It caught me off guard- going without music has never really crossed my mind...ever. But as I was talking to her about it I started to realize how much music fills the silence of my day to day. And usually that is its only function.

I love to listen to music, but I've been wondering lately if I listen to it too much. I didn't think such a thing could be possible for me. However, I think I will explore the benefits of silence, particularly on a Sabbath day.

After all, while I believe God can and does speak through music, His voice is more free when it can speak outisde the context of whatever music happens to be playing on my iPod.

So, on my Sabbath particularly, I think I'm going to put down the iPod. See if I have less trouble hearing His voice, when other voices aren't in the forefront of my mind.

Then all he has to compete with are the voices in my head that don't come through headphones.

=)