Sabbath Messages > Sabbath Message: April 1, 2006
Good Sabbath
April 1, 2006
"A fool always finds some greater fool to admire him." (Boileau)
"Young men think old men fools and old men know young men to be so." (Metcalf)
So it is again April fool's day. Will there be jokes played and truth misrepresented? Of course, we must have fun in days that challenge our senses, our rationality.
As a teacher I caution students and clients about constant acceleration, speeding toward faster speed and why? I define hi-tech as getting to traffic jams faster. We seem to be in love with speed, instant stuff, the McVelocity towards whatever. No wonder we have sleep disorders, we are like Seinfeld's nothing, which was the sum total of their young lives, preoccupied with boredom and making love and breaking up. We were entertained with their tomfoolery, Kramer's inanities, and Elaine's pushing taller men down on their butts.
Now we embrace smart growth having witnessed the mess that fast growth or "dumb-growth" insures,. We misunderstand time as something to either kill or use up as fast as possible, missing its nourishment--if slowed down to be truly enjoyed. The average executive misuses time, being too busy to be effective and connected.
When was the last time you saw a young person without a cell-phone stuck to his/her ear. To whom did they speak before that interruptive phone? It's like "what did you watch, Daddy, when you were listening to the pre-TV radio?" I watched my imagination, which was more creative than TV.
The lesson of the Sabbath is to decelerate, to do nothing with speed, to lessen the collar of pressure binding your mind, to appreciate thoughtfulness, to pause to converse with God, loved ones, neighbors. There is a pressure to use time, but on the Sabbath, we can learn that time is between our ears which we can control, if we wish to pursue love and he joy of fulfillment.
Fast is not smart and certainly not wisdom. As Einstein said:" please explain the problem to me slowly, as I do not understand things quickly."
"We barter life for oblivion and pay the price of toil and pain in the pursuit of aimlessness. Through prayer we sanctify ourselves, our feelings, our ideas. In prayer we establish a living contact with God, between our concern and His will, between despair and promise, want and abundance."
"Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous...(Thomas Mann)
"Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world."
(Miguel De Cervantes-one of my favorites)
So, this Sabbath, slow down and life will give you more meaning and you'll notice Spring and the rebirth of Mother Earth.
sandy
