Our Unplugged Sabbath
Ears to hear and eyes to see — both are gifts from the Lord.
Proverbs 20:12 (NLT)
My little girl, Nora, will turn seven tomorrow and one of the few things I can be certain about these days is that she’ll get a birthday gift she won’t use, or, at best, use it only for a short time after I threaten to donate it for lack of use. Sooner than later those gifts always disappear in a natural phenomena known as parental binge cleaning.
It was very fortuitous that my wife & I had planned a short trip up to the mountains for the exact weekend that Pastor Kevin asked the church to have an “unplugged sabbath”. Some friends were kind enough to watch our kids too, so this would be a couple nights of kid-free rest, relaxation, and fishing near a semi-remote lake. Unplugging was going to be easy...until it wasn’t.
Our goal was to make space for us to embrace the presence of God and each other with minimal distractions. I underestimated the size of Verizon’s network. In addition to still having cell service (albeit limited) in the woods, we had a lot of other campers in the area. So we mitigated those by heading to the lake and hiking around it to be on our own. We fished mostly silently (because people who talk constantly while fishing really aren’t trying to catch a fish) and often on our own.
Nailed it! Well, sort of semi-nailed it. It’s one thing to take yourself out of the distractions, it’s a whole other process to get the distractions out of you. My mind and soul were busy chewing on all that’s taken place this year. So I switched from lure fishing to bobber watching, lit a cigar, and watched the closer-than-normal clouds play in the wind. For a few moments I felt the presence & voice of God in me. Then time was up.
Soon people had filled in all the empty areas of the lake, the fishing got competitive, and paddle boarders broke every form of silence they could find. It was a great day, followed by a fun evening, and an easy morning of packing up the next day. A two night getaway was never going to be long enough to fully decompress from the first half of 2020. But what I had done was reconnect with gifts I hadn’t been using as often as I needed to: hearing and seeing the LORD.
If you are in someone’s presence, they’re communicating to you. The communication can be heard, seen, felt, and perceived. Even the lack of those things - silence - is a form of communication.
An ever-present God is continuously communicating. He is always revealing Himself, even in times of silence. Perhaps one of the reasons we often feel “out of the loop” with God is because we’ve neglected the Spirit-given gifts of hearing and seeing Him all around us. I believe God’s communication is constant, it never stops. Differs in forms, but never ceases.
Like my daughter, I have to be reminded to use my gifts. Frustration, anxiety, and fear are some common symptoms for my gift of sensing God going dormant. With our neighborhoods, cities, and country in turmoil, the more we utilize these gifts the better we’ll be at being the peacemakers we’re called to be. It’s hard to make peace if you’re not in a place of shalom.
Thankfully, the Father who gave us the gift of “ears to hear and eyes to see” won’t take them away for lack of use. Instead He’s given us directions (the Bible) and guides (the Holy Spirit and fellow Saints) to help us silence our souls and reconnect with our gifts. I pray that we use them, and use them often. For our sake and the sake of our neighbors.
Shalom to you my brothers & sisters.
Nate Rogers