For more than fourteen years, I have written these posts. In the beginning, it was every day of the week. A great friend of mine reminded me that in the ancient Hebrew culture, every 50th year was a year of Jubilee. In that year, the year after seven sets of seven years, the fields were remained unplanted, land reverted back to its original owners and a host of other things happened that recalibrated the entire nation. In a sense, I needed that recalibration myself when I realized that after 49 days of writing, I needed a break – of one day. Sometime later, I went to writing five nights a week, taking the weekends off. Eventually, I settled into the rhythm of writing on Sundays and Thursdays so our readers could receive my posts on Monday and Friday mornings – to begin and end their work week with thoughts from Scripture.
That’s the way it has been for many years now. When I don’t know what to write about, I wait to be prompted by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, I just sit here in silence, while other times, I am flooded with ideas and could write several posts in one sitting. And when I am really busy, I rarely, but have on occasion, thought about taking a night off. I just can’t bring myself to do that.
I guess that I’m not very good at taking a Sabbath rest. With as much time as I have during the week as I approach retirement, you would think that I am always chomping at the bit to share my thoughts. Don’t get me wrong. I love writing this blog, but there are days that I need superhuman stamina to get through all that I have to do.
Today, for the first time in 25 years, the company that hosts our website had a power outage. We were told that it was the result of a terrible accident that took out several utility poles and cut service to the company that hosts our website. In full transparency, I wasn’t about to fret about it. This all happened yesterday morning and what’s the chance that they should still be down 36 hours later… Well, it happened. As of late this afternoon, our site was still down. And that meant that I couldn’t access the site to write my post. I wonder if I would have some sort of forced Sabbath rest. After all, the Sabbath doesn’t have to be in a Sunday, or a Saturday for that matter.
I had so much to do today that I started thinking that a forced Sabbath this evening wouldn’t be too bad! Our readers would understand and I would probably get a few emails about why people couldn’t find my musings this evening, but the world wouldn’t stop and things would continue as they always do. In any event, I didn’t worry about it – you know the saying: Change the things you can, don’t worry about the things you can’t change, and grant me the wisdom to know the difference.
Well, lo and behold, earlier this evening, I received word that the site was back up and running! In an instant, I was excited about writing and immediately, I knew the topic… I love to teach the Bible and I really don’t feel complete if I can’t do that. Suddenly, I was incredibly jazzed about my opportunity to teach another verse of Scripture. The topic was simple… to always be prepared to preach the word, even if it looks like you won’t have the chance.
That almost happened to me today – it was almost a forced Sabbath – and I couldn’t help but dwell on a verse of the Bible that the apostle Paul wrote to his young friend Timothy. Paul had taught his young protege about being a pastor and tells his young charge, in Timothy 4:2, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”
My encouragement this evening is that, as Christians, we should always be ready to spread the Good News. That means each of us – whether through active teaching, writing, mentoring, coaching or just plain conversation. People need to hear the Word of God. I am one those who has the privilege to teach on a regular basis. And I thank each of you for the ability to speak into your lives in some, hopefully, meaningful way. My prayer is that each of us will be prepared to preach the Gospel on a moment’s notice. After all, Jesus commanded us to spread the news to the ends of the earth. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…