The older I get, the quirkier I become. Take running, for instance.
When I run by myself, I run slowly, evenly, at a pace I can maintain for long stretches at a time. I also breathe better, more deeply, taking in fresh, clean air and letting it fill my lungs and fuel my body. Running alone, I notice things along the way; flowers growing by the side of the road, the sun rising over the horizon, the tracks of other people and animals that have been there before me. And I am content; body, mind, spirit all working together; all savoring the experience.
As soon as I am aware of somebody else along my route—another runner or a neighbor working in his yard—everything changes. My pace quickens and my heart begins to race. I start gasping for air, trying to figure out how long I will have to maintain this pace before I lose the other person or have a heart attack, which ever comes first. Running as though I am being watched, I don’t notice anything around me. I am focused strictly on the road ahead and on appearing worthy of the name “runner.” And I am miserable; truly miserable.
I remember reading somewhere that the commandment to “remember the Sabbath” wasn’t intended to spoil all our fun one day a week or to dictate what we can, and cannot do on the seventh day, although certainly, over time that is what has happened to it. Instead, the original intent of that commandment was to get us, for at least one day in seven, to stop doing and just be. To stop trying to prove that we are worthy of anything based on our own merits and accept the truth that, in God’s sight, we are already precious before we even get out of bed in the morning.
Maybe then, a good Sabbath activity for me would be to start running as though it doesn’t matter how fast or how far I go. Maybe, a good Sabbath practice for me on the seventh day and every day would be to run more slowly, breathe more deeply and look, really look at the world around me no matter who’s watching. Maybe, it would be good for all of us to learn to rest in the knowledge that, no matter who we are or what we can do we are all precious in His sight.
