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Labor of Love

Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Rest from your labors. This commandment is a difficult one to follow, don’t you think? As worship and music director, Sunday is the day I rest the least! I encourage my three kids to be active outside of school, so weekends are not for resting at my house.

My mom tells the story that as a young teen, my favorite days were the ones with absolutely no rest. I’d go straight from school to my violin lesson, then come up the hill swinging my case, where she would meet me with my softball gear and I’d head straight to practice. I continued the practice of packing my schedule as a young adult, and didn’t discover the advantage of extra time until I was 30 years old.

I do feel that the pandemic has changed our view of rest. Last year at this time we were getting excited for spring break, which was abruptly canceled, and sheltering in place forced us to “rest.” The Sabbath was finally restful for me, as I created videos for worship during the week and escaped to the lake every weekend. I loved the time away, but the joy of worship was lost for me, since I wasn’t able to share it in person. I missed being able to do my work on the Sabbath with my congregation.

Jesus was chastised several times for healing people on the Sabbath, and his response was that by healing people he was giving them the ability to rest. Especially in this season of Lent, I hope that you are able to carve out time for God in your schedule. If you don’t have an entire day, I hope you regard the moments that you make other’s lives easier and happier as doing God’s will. Consider it a labor of love.

In Christ’s love,
Heather Lewis
Director of Music and Worship

Tags: Weekly Word