The Grind of Labor

It's hard for preachers to not harp on the profundity of Sabbath when listening to and looking at people's efforts to rest at all costs on certain days. There's so much underlying reasoning that I would just love to excavate for hours on end.

So, I'll just share with you, the reader, what I think is asked of us when we approach days like Labor Day and Sabbath. What I'm sharing is a quote from Caryll Houselander's book, The Reed of God, pointing to the profundity of the call to relent and give way.

The surrender that is asked of us includes complete and absolute trust; it must be like Our Lady's surrender, without condition and without reservation. We shall not be asked to do more than the Mother of God; we shall not be asked to become extraordinary or set apart or to make a hard and fast rule of life or to compile a manual of mortifications or heroic resolutions; we shall not be asked to cultivate our souls like rare hothouse flowers; we shall not, most of us, even be allowed to do that.

What we shall be asked to give is our flesh and blood, our daily life—our thoughts, our service to one another, our affections and loves, our words, our intellect, our waking, working, and sleeping, our ordinary human joys and sorrows—to God. To surrender all that we are, as we are, to the Spirit of Love in order that our lives may bear Christ into the world—that is what we shall be asked.

I pray this blesses you on today and every day you surrender to sabbath.