EP 61: Mistaking Busyness for Godliness

I think that He holds that out for all of us believers that if

we are obedient in the Sabbath because that is something He has

instructed His people to do. Like He called us to be holy and

set apart and a part of that is Sabbath thing and abiding and

resting. He is going to be faithful and

good in that moment. Hey, everyone, and welcome back

to the Grace Church Podcast. I'm your host, Whitney Maynus

here with Scott and Zingo. Hey, Scott.

Hey, Whitney. Good morning.

Good morning. And in the studio today, our

guest is Michaela Sanders from the Harrison Bridge campus and

she's also on staff. She works with our students,

gets to help create curriculum like the hard question series we

talked about last fall, and she gets to work with our women as

well, amongst many other responsibilities.

But particularly her work with women is how today's topic came

about. Before we really dive into that,

Michaela, thanks for being here. Yes, I'm excited.

First time guest, yes, but long time listener, I'm sure.

Obviously, obviously, for sure. All right.

Can you just give us a quick intro how you came to Grace, how

long you been on staff, tell us about your family, all that good

stuff. Yeah, so I actually started

coming to Grace in high school. I was a Ford student myself.

I came with another family that invited me and so I spent about

2 1/2 years here in Forge and then went off to college and

after college got married. When we decided that we were

going to move back, we had a six month old.

So we moved back home to be closer to family and we, I mean,

we didn't even question where we were going to church.

We came straight back to Grace and within months of being at

Grace and being asked to work in student ministry or to serve in

student ministry at the time, Christy Peterson was going off

staff at Harrison Bridge and asked me to take her spot.

So I mean, that happened in, I mean, 2-3 months.

It was very quick. So we have been back now for

almost 7 years. We're coming up on seven years

and I've been on staff for about 6 1/2.

Nice, and I've got some sweet kiddos as well.

Yes, we have 4 kids, so the six month old that we had moving

back is now 7 and then we have three under him, youngest being

nine months. Nice so y'all stay busy.

Got plenty going on. And then, yeah, our topic for

today, you gave a talk to the Harrison Bridge women around a

few different ideas, but you did a great job of putting them

together, talked about striving and abiding and Sabbath.

And we'll really get to dive into that.

And certainly not just a topic for women, but how, how did this

topic kind of first come up for you and why did you decide that?

I think this would be helpful for our women.

Yeah. So we actually had a prayer

conference first. We had a prayer conference that

was in the fall. And when we did that prayer

conference, we had a prayer wall as like a response element.

And we had every woman that came put up just prayer requests and

not even put their name on it, just in the prayer requests up.

And that way as a response to the end of the night, we were

able to pray over our people and our women.

And as I was reading them, I mean, it was just filled with

pain, heartache, suffering. I think there is something about

not having to put your name on it.

People are willing to answer that honestly.

So I just saw all the hurt our women were going through.

We personally, as a family had just been through a lot.

And so I was just looking at it and I just, I felt clear over

the next few weeks as I was thinking about that night and

thinking about what our women needed for the spring, I got

very clear on over and over the Lord just being like, hey, you

can't take them out of their circumstance.

Like you're looking for ways to relieve what they're going

through. When actually it is so much more

than that. It's not about pulling them out

of it, but it's actually offering them something.

And that's something being the Lord.

And that's really where through conversations with other people

and just through what the Lord was doing in my own soul, Like

this is a combination, like you just said, of abiding and

Sabbath. And I mean really, at the end of

the day, just trusting the Lord and what that looks like for

their life. Yeah, absolutely.

No, that's so powerful. And I just love the way that our

staff and our leaders are thinking about like they were

paying attention to what our people need and having

conversations and getting to see that reality and then getting to

step into it. But this is also personal for

you. You know, in your talk you

mentioned a little bit of just you're in the weeds on it and

trying to learn it as well. So yeah, how you just seen some

of those difficulties and challenges appear in your own

life? Yeah.

So I mentioned like we had just gone through a real tough time.

So about a month before this prayer conference, we had a

health emergency with our youngest.

So at the time of the health emergency, he was 4 weeks old.

And there, I mean, truly there was a period of time where we

did not know if he would live. And that period of time was a

week. But before that moment that it

the emergency happened, we knew something was going on.

And so we saw signs of all that. We were taking him to the doctor

and finally he had gotten into a specialist.

But between finally getting the doctor to recognize and take a

serious and the specialist, it was about two days.

And in those two days, and I didn't see this in the moment.

But looking back on it, it's just funny because I just, I

mean, having the house clean was somehow going to fix the like

chaos in my soul. Like I tried so hard to control

my outside circumstances and get everything to settle on the

outside so that the inside would be settled.

And I just felt about the second day, so the day before we went

to the doctor, we just had a ton of people praying for us.

And I felt just this overwhelming amount of peace

come over me to just stop to stop trying to control

everything around me and stop just trying to make the chaos

slow down. Because there was no, again,

there was no taking me out of the current circumstance or him.

It was there was something else much bigger.

They could come over me and provide that comfort that I was

striving for. And that was the Lord.

And so it was just so weird, like over the next 48 hours when

we go to the specialist, the the emergency arose like minutes

after we saw this specialist and got some blood drawn.

I can't look back at that moment without thinking like, Oh my

gosh, the Lord was all over that.

Like the Lord just there was so many things.

I mean, all the way up to like Matt Kelly and Lee Austin were

standing in the emergency room as soon as we got the results

that our son was having a brain bleed.

Like I, I don't even know how he got there that fast.

Like, but like the Lord was just covering us every step of the

way. And it's just funny because now

looking back at that, I see how the Lord was preparing us, me

specifically, for once we got out of that health emergency,

the second week we were in the hospital, I was very alone.

My husband had to go back to work.

He had to go take care of our other three kids.

And I was completely by myself. And that became that room.

I mean, it's a fishbowl that it's like people can see in that

room. There's no privacy in the

pediatric ICU. There's none.

And I just sat there and I remember days of prayer, of

journaling out prayers of like, I don't understand why this

happened. This is hard to wrap your mind

around. I feel like I, I can't even, my

mind can't even keep up. But like, the Lord met me and

all that. Yeah, to where there are moments

where I miss that room, which is so weird.

I never thought I would say that that like I would never want to

go through that again. But the amount that I saw the

Lord in those two weeks, I mean, I could never, I could never

give that back. And so very personal to me.

This is what this all looks. Like, yeah, absolutely, very

real, very tangible and and in some ways applied in like almost

the highest pressure that you could get it.

And we and we do have a lot of our people who are living those

circumstances every day. And then a lot of times it is

just the day-to-day pressures and schedules and we're busy and

life, life is just hard kind of no matter how we twisted for

sure. So what did you kind of how did

you start on this talk? Like what were some of the

misconceptions that through that experience, you saw it yourself,

You started seeing in our women and in our men about just our

time. And it's like how we're managing

our emotions in some ways. Yeah, I mean, I said it before,

but I got very clear and I I really, this was not me.

I mean, I feel like the Lord was very clear with me.

There's no, it's not about taking them out of the

circumstance. The relief doesn't come in being

pulled out. And so as I'm like recognizing

that I'm like, OK, then where's the relief coming from?

And that was when like through studying and just through a lot

of prayer, I just realized like, it's not about coming out of it.

It's actually allowing the Lord to be in it with us.

Like he's already taken their steps towards us being open to

him being in that with us and what he has for us in those

moments. I think what really stood out to

me though, is in a lot of ways I think we avoid doing it because

it's hard. Yeah.

I mean, sitting with the Lord and just letting him move in my

life, like, I mean, that's hard. Yeah, it's easy to just be busy

it. Is it is because then I don't

have to process, right? I don't have to think about all

the hard. And if we can then exchange or

equate, you know, striving and working to godliness, then that

just fits right in with the, the, the natural bent of our

flesh, which is to just work and work and work and work and work

and, and control. I mean, I'm, I'm, I thought

about the irony that we feel like alleviating the pain and

the suffering is the path to blessing.

And no one, we don't, no one wants to suffer and we don't

want to watch anybody suffer. But the irony is that we feel

like we have the ability to do that because we have so many

resources, right? We live in such a amazing,

prosperous country town in the world, resources at our

fingertips, technology, all of that.

But it, it creates this real sense of false security for

sure. And then this false perception

that the, the striving is godliness.

So you had a forced stoppage, right?

Yeah. What was your relationship to

striving before that? I mean, young mom, 4 kids, job.

I mean, what's going on? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's it's hard not to worship productivity.

Yeah, talk about that. Yeah.

I mean like for me, settled for me is I have taken care of

everybody. I mean the family, the husband,

I've taken care of that. My house is clean, I've

exercised that day and I've done my job.

I, I mean, I, I work. So I, I've done that well, and

if I can hit all those things for me, it's funny how you can

sleep better. But then the ironic thing, and

even as I was studying for this, I mean, I had to be honest with

myself that like I all that did was wake me up the next day and

that same To Do List that I achieved yesterday.

Yes, it starts over. It was the same one for today.

And so it was a cycle. And if I couldn't hit all those

things, then I was a failure, you know?

So you had a scorecard in your head?

For sure. And so where's God?

Is God like the teacher that's grading you?

I think a little bit of that. I do, I think, but I also think

I allow like how my, like, if my husband's happy with me or not,

or if my kids are being good kids, I let those be the

scorecard. And then I also let those be the

thing that like I'm worshipping. And so God is just like this

good idea in theory, but not something that I'm resting in

or, you know, using the language of abiding, like I'm not abiding

in. It's just like another piece of

the To Do List for me. And I think it's funny because

I'm type A, my husband's type B. And so I'm very much on the

structure to like, I like the To Do List and I like to get things

done. And so it's funny that I feel

like it plays out differently for different personalities,

right? So like God is on my To Do List,

but I would definitely think like the way my husband's been

is that it's a scorecard. And so it's just funny how like

that that plays out differently for a different personality.

What? What does it look like for him

to be on your To Do List? What type of activities are you

doing? You know, I mean, it's like, did

I get to the end of the day and did I have time to read his

word? Did I have time to pray?

And it's funny, like I, I've always my whole life, I've

always spent time praying before I go to bed.

And if I if I'm not careful, that prayer time becomes about

what are the things that I haven't already prayed about

today? Again, it's another To Do List,

right? And that's just some of how I'm

bent and wired. But yeah, I mean, I feel guilty

if I don't spend time in his word, if I go several days

without that that that weighs on me.

And I think it's more so out of the fact that I haven't

accomplished, but I feel like I should as a Christian.

Less about the relationship not being cultivated and more so

really more about you and less about him.

It's. Much more about me, which is

funny because I do think the American culture is very much

time is about me, time is mine. And when we view time as mine,

then we see it as OK, time can buy me things like time can buy

me success. It can buy me money in some

cases. I mean, more time equals more

money. I think it can buy us more time

with people. It can further relationships

like it. I mean, it truly is a currency,

especially in the American culture.

And so I just think, oh, if I just have more time than I can

accomplish all the things and I will feel settled.

It's about me feeling settled. And we talk about a lot of

different idols as a way of like self soothing or finding

comfort. And you know, it's whether it's

drugs or sex or even less insidious things just escape

like social media. But we don't really think about

time as like, oh, I can just if I can do all these things with

my day and accomplish the things that I need to, then I will feel

OK. And like, we're self medicating

ourselves even with our schedules.

And that the reverse is also true.

If we can't hold all of that together, then we are just like,

not OK, yeah, with ourselves, you know?

But that is, it's another category for sure.

So if time is not mine, time belongs to God, but time is

limited. I worship productivity and the

results in this kind of striving performance mindset, then how do

I go about turning, changing, moving into with limited time?

How do I use that time for good? Yeah, without the crisis.

I mean, the crisis brings everything to a halt, but like,

how do I do that in the everyday.

What did you. Yeah.

How did you lead? Yeah in.

That discussion, yeah, I think the everyday, I think you have

to be honest with yourself. I think we, you had brought it

up before, but I think some of the reason we avoid the

stillness and being with the Lord is because we're avoiding

being honest with ourself, taking inventory and being

honest. And I think we can't deal with

any of this on a heart level if we can't acknowledge the fact

that we have a problem to begin with.

Like we do have to acknowledge the problem and then we have to

figure out what our bins are. Like I told you, like my

personality has a bend. And so it's taken people around

me acknowledging that for me it's taken, you know, my I said

my husband's very different from me.

I mean, it's taken him calling me out on things of like you run

this family and you run yourself based on A to do list.

And that is what deems like you being settled or you being happy

or you being disappointed, you know, or stressed.

And and it can look very, can make you look very successful in

other people's eyes, which is where the self deception comes

from, right? Yes, which also I think is why

we are drawn to other people's issues.

Yeah, because then we don't have to worry about our own.

For sure, for sure, yeah, yeah. And that and I think that that

was some of the sweetness of this for me is that the Lord

like allowed me to see the hurting and other people and

that's what really got me down this trajectory.

But the entire time I'm just very, I'm getting very clear on

what he wants for me in this process.

And so even in talking to our women at HBI, told them from the

jump, I'm like, y'all, this is for me.

Like I'm just telling you what the Lord has taught me and

convicted me of and how He's just changed my heart in the

process. Yeah.

So can you explain a little bit? I think that a lot of times

there's tiredness and then there's like this deeper kind of

a weariness that you're talking about when it comes to striving.

Like, like we do want to be tired.

We want to work hard, we want to spend our time well and steward

it well. But like, at what point does it

really start to become a little bit more nefarious and

dangerous? Risk especially?

Yeah, because being tired is not wrong at all.

I would say with this idea of weariness, I think that it's

something that is more prolonged over time.

And I think what's sneaky about weariness is that it's like

tiredness that is just compounding.

And at first it's not bad, but then all of a sudden you look

back and you're like, shoot, I am just completely worn out and

completely overextended. And so I think when we recognize

that we're starting to have a loss of will, a loss of

strength, that we wake up in the mornings and already dreading

the day, I'm just completely exhausted.

Because I do think, you know, like for me, exercise is energy

expenditure, but it fills my cup.

Sure. And I think you can get to the

point within weariness where you have worked yourself so hard and

exhausted yourself, where there's no filling cup.

You are just empty, you know. Yeah, you've moved beyond the

physical, mental work and recovery to some kind of soul

exhaustion. And I think it's weird because

it mixes emotions. It, it's got this mental stress,

it's got spiritual stress to it. Your physical body starts

responding. I mean, I, I've felt for real

feel like people can get like physically sick when they're in

a state of weariness. For sure.

And we've talked before about the idea of chronic stress,

which definitely applies here, but the word chronic of like

it's ongoing, it's continuing. You're like, I don't know that

seasonally I'm going to get out of this anytime soon.

And even just I mean, there, there are certain circumstances

as well, if you're caregiving, if you're in a season of grief

that we're sure, you know, this, there's just a different layer

to all of this that we want to acknowledge.

And so, you know, those are those are separate

conversations. Yeah.

Well, then, I mean, as with all things, we want to talk about

the Bible, talk about Scripture, any kind of rude.

We don't just want to offer insight or good ideas, although

we like to think that we have them.

As you were kind of studying and preparing this talk, like what

were some scriptures that came up that were really?

Helpful for you? Yeah, I mean, the first time

rest is introduced is in the creation order, which is

intentional and purposeful. So one of my favorite things

that I just as I was reading and studying that I learned was how.

The 7th day of rest is just so unique.

Only two times does God bless creation.

He calls creation good, but only two times does he bless it.

And it's one when he makes man, and then the other time is on

the day of rest. And just how beautiful that that

is, that the God of creation who didn't take time to rest because

he was tired or run out, he doesn't need that.

He doesn't need that. No, he took the moment to rest.

I mean, he was able to look back at all he had done in the

created order and he was able to marvel at the work that he had

done. And then what's interesting

about Genesis in the way that the creation account is written

is that a lot of scholars believe that there is this day

and night. There's this beginning and end

to all of the days of creation except for the 7th day and

stylistically writing it that way is implying that there isn't

really just this neat beginning and end.

And then the other thing for me, like I said, my personality bend

is 1 to get list done. God rested and creation wasn't

done. Like he still went on to create

a woman to create Even. So that's just so fascinating to

me that he was like, let me pause and let me look back and

then I'll keep going. But I'm not going to pause or

look back because I'm done, because I'm done, because I'm

finished, you know? The goal wasn't completion.

It wasn't. Yeah.

Work was good, yes. And rest was good, Yeah.

And some of that is probably to set an example for us, and then

some of it is probably like the idea of enjoyment, right?

It's like I make good things and it's OK to enjoy that and look

at it, you know, so. Which was part of the creation

of Eve. It's like, Oh well, he's not

he's not enjoying life right now not good for him to be alone.

So let's let's make a helper. You know so.

And the practical piece for that for me has been like, if my kids

are always just To Do List tasks, like the things that they

need, if I'm only viewing my kids that way, I'm not enjoying

not enjoying them, you know? So I mean, there's a very

practical piece. Well, OK, so push it one level

more with God's on the To Do List, Yeah.

Then how are you enjoying him? I'm not.

Yeah, I'm not. And I'm and I also don't think

I'm truly learning about him like I'm I'm going to scripture

and looking for things I think I need, like I need wisdom on a

thing or I want to learn about something.

And so I'm always picturing his word as A to do list in a way to

achieve something I want. Yeah.

And so like I, yeah. It's not it's bad, but it's good

insight. I mean, I am glad that he

pricked my heart around for sure though.

No for sure. What other texts kind of stood

out to you as you were studying? Yeah, I mean, I would definitely

say just learning about the Israelites being in the

wilderness. I think I was coming out of a

wilderness moment. I mean, I mentioned it, but that

second week of being in the hospital was a wilderness moment

for me. I was alone and I had already

seen the way that God was faithful and I actually started

listing out all the names of our nurses that just met me in

certain moments. And I have a journal full of

their names and what they did for me in a moment, 'cause I

never wanted to forget that. But I was just very clear that

the Lord had the right person in the right moment.

And I so like with the Israelites being in the

wilderness, like God had given them provisions.

He had already proven His faithfulness.

But it's so funny, 'cause they got stuck in this cycle of like,

do I still obey? Is God still going to be

faithful? Because I mean, the Israel, I

can make myself one of the Israelites real easy.

Like there were young moms with kids.

There were Israelites who were caring for elderly parents, like

they, they were dads who had to protect their family out in the

middle of nowhere. Like we are, we are, we can put

ourselves in the place of the Israelites.

And so when you think of them that way, you realize like, OK,

their disobedience isn't for all from the things that distract

me, you know? And so that was interesting,

just studying that and studying how they were taught the Sabbath

and why God extended it out to them.

And really it was, hey, trust me, like I'm the one that is

going to sustain you. And that's what he was trying to

get them to understand. But then I think Jesus is very

clear about that too in the New Testament for us and this idea

that he is the vine and that we are the branches and the hope

that was held out for us. And all of that was the fact

that if I'm, if I stay attached to the vine, I may go through

seasons of weariness. Where when I gave this talk, it

was right at the like turn of winter to spring, which was just

really sweet picture of like you're going to have barren

seasons, like where you don't feel like you're producing much

fruit. And it feels like I just don't

have much life in me. You are going to have seasons of

that. But as long as you stay attached

to Jesus and stay attached to the vine, then spring is always

coming. And that is just such a

beautiful picture for us as believers, that even if we do

have those seasons, it is OK. But Jesus just tells us return.

Yeah, return, remain, stay connected.

And I mean and I think the word there is abiding talk a little

bit about how that flesh itself out.

Yeah. Yeah.

So, you know, abiding is hard because as I'm saying, hey, stop

striving, I'm also saying, hey, we need to abide.

And so there's work to be done. Yeah, what's the difference?

Yeah, I think that abiding looks very different because it's not

about what I can get from it. I think there are benefits for

us from it, for sure. But the blessing and the

sustaining and the faithfulness is coming from the Lord.

That's the source. It is the source.

Yeah. And so, I mean, I, I keep going

back to the hospital for us, but like, that was just so clear to

me that I had nothing to get us out of that moment.

I had nothing to save us from that moment.

But the Lord entered into all of that.

And there were just quiet moments of, oh, like, he, he

loves me. He adores me.

I mean, one of those moments was it was late one night.

It was dark. I was the only one up.

And I look outside and of the fishbowl that we were in, I look

out that window and there is a sweatshirt that one of the

nurses was wearing that said I am the true vine.

And on the back of her sweatshirt when she turned

around. That's cool.

Yeah. On the back of her sweatshirt

was the lyrics to the song talking about the goodness of

God and that his faithfulness and his goodness has no end.

And I'm like, OK, OK, I can't make this up.

I can't make this up. Because that's not like

Philippians 413 on a sweatshirt. Like that's very specific.

Very specific and it was just the combination of the two

things I needed to hear and to know.

And so I think abiding looks like that.

I think that means you are open to what the Lord wants for you.

I think that means sometimes we're quiet.

I mean, sometimes I think it is. I think sometimes it's writing

in the car and a whispered prayer that you say.

I think it's just letting God be a part of the day-to-day

moments. It's not, you know, making an

hour to read scripture necessarily, but just being open

to what He has for you to reveal to you.

Yeah. I think one of the ironies is

that we think abiding remaining is very passive.

So we don't like it, but I would argue that it's very active.

It's requires diligence that if you go back and just read the

passage from John 15, you're going to see the word love

mentioned 9 different times over 9 verses.

So it feels like there's a very strong connection that John's

trying to get us to understand is that the love of God received

in US demonstrates in love towards him and love for others.

And like love is active, love is hard, true love.

The way we think about love is, is more like self-serving love,

love on my terms and receive love and love the people that I

want to love. But like, love is hard.

Like it abiding through the sense, through the lens of love,

loving God, even when I don't understand, even when I don't

fully, yeah, comprehend what he's doing.

But like, trust, like that's not easy, you know, So, but you

know, it's like, we've got that. That's one option or this other

like To Do List. Is there other option?

And so the way I think about it, and maybe this is just for me,

but I try to think about it, Am I doing something that is

producing fruit or that's just being productive?

Like I want to aim not for productivity.

I want to aim for fruitfulness and maybe sweating hairs there.

But I really try to go back to the language of John 15.

Remain in me. You'll bear much fruit.

So then like, OK, well, what is the fruit?

Well, the fruit is not getting a bunch of stuff done as much as

it is love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and

gentleness and faithfulness and goodness and self-control.

And when I see people, I typically don't see or commend

those characteristics, those virtues in real life.

I tend to, I tend to see them for what they do, what they

produce and affirm that as opposed to the fruit in their

life. And so that's just been a point

of correction for me over the last few years and just how I

view people, how I, what I say to people, how I think about

others. And I think it really comes back

to how do I see myself with God and then do I see myself a child

receiving the Father's love. Therefore I'm obeying him

because he has good things for me.

He loves me. It's funny because in this

passage in just John 15, there's this crazy, it looks like it's

crazy when you read it out of context.

It says if you remain in me and what my words remain in you, you

may ask for anything you want and it will be granted.

OK, well, the To Do List productivity model is like, oh,

I just found a genie, like God's going to give me all my desires.

And so you stop and go. What was he?

What was he trying to communicate there?

Well, it's like, OK, if you're staying connected to the vine,

remaining in me, love me, receive my love, then your

desires, they're all conforming, they're all changing.

They're all moving into like God's will.

So then it's like, yeah, I can't ask because I have the mind of

Christ. Like I'm thinking about the

things I care about, the things that God cares about.

And so like, that was just like a poof.

I was like, Oh well that really does put it and it's either in

one bucket or or the other. How I even take a a verse like

that and try to interpret and apply it in my own life.

So. Yeah, no, that's so good.

I mean, at the risk of counteracting a little bit of

what we're talking about, if we can make this a little

practical, 'cause we're talking about Sabbath, we're talking

about abiding, we're talking about rest.

And it's hard to figure out like what that looks like.

And I think that there's a lot of examples for us in culture of

whether it's self-care or just binge watching something like

there's there's ways to rest that are not what Scott is

talking about of producing fruit.

But what, what kind of thoughts would y'all offer in terms of

how do we actually rest? And maybe that's the the

productivity person in me being like, So what do I do?

No, it is, you know. That is funny, yeah.

I mean, one thing that I have started doing is kind of taking

back the time that I'm already doing things.

So even for my own kids, you know, to be able to model this

for them, is how do we take back car rides?

Like, how do we make those same moments intentional?

It's less to me about, you know, carving out more moments or more

spaces for more things and more about how does God just meet me

where I'm at? And I got to see that first hand

in a crisis moment. But I mean, I just believe that

the Lord can do that in your day-to-day life and moment by

moment. And so, and some of it is that

he has brought this all to surface for me.

And so I'm very aware of it. And I do have to take my

thoughts captive in moments where I notice I am letting what

I can accomplish be who I am. And instead of resting in who

God has created me to be and the identity that I have in him and

I'm an image bearer of him. And so when I rest in that, and

I can take those thoughts captive and just be captivated

by that, then I can be like, Oh, well, like I'm God's creation

and he is my sustainer. He sustains our life.

And that, I don't know, that impacts every moment.

It doesn't. It's not carving out more

moments. It's letting him be in the

moment that I'm in right now, you know?

Yeah. I love that using the time we

already have and I think it's got to, it's got to be

scheduled, right, intentional. If it's if it's not something

that is intentional on your calendar, it's probably not

going to happen. And what I mean by that is just

some idea of Sabbath, whether that's a day for you or whether

that's an afternoon. And then it gets super

complicated when we try to make it Sunday in church because tons

of folks listen to this or serving and working really hard

on Sunday. And it doesn't feel like a

Sabbath. It doesn't feel like they're

resting. But you just got to stop from

your normal everyday work. Yeah.

And it's, that's the first step, right?

Like you just got to cease working.

So like going to church, serving, that's a different

kind. I wouldn't put that in the same

category because often times we leave that and then we just

start looking at our phones and we start checking our emails and

we start looking at text messages or we start putting our

To Do List together for Monday. Like that's not Sabbath, right?

So like you've got, you've got to stop, cease so that you can

create some space to rest. And then I think in that resting

is where you're talking about Michaela is just really

embracing the Father's goodness and our true identity in him.

But like, I don't, I don't, it's hard to do that when I'm

working. It is so hard.

Yeah, particularly if I'm not working.

Well, if I'm working for the, the, the purpose of, of, of, of

striving and I'm bringing God into, into my To Do List.

But if I cease working and I rest both mentally and

physically, something about that scheduled reminder, it helps me

understand I'm not what I do, but it's who I'm loved by.

Like that's where my true identity comes from.

Yeah. And I think there is something

to the like whenever we go to rest, like am I still trying to

fix myself? Am I still trying to solve a

problem? Am I trying to escape from

something or dumb from something?

Or am I bringing myself to the Father, asking him to come be

present with me and asking him to care for me and not, not

solve my problems, not Take Me Out of the circumstance that I

find myself in? But just like, like Michaela was

talking about like that peace that comes, you know, whether

it's through prayer or just what, what whatever abiding does

look like, you know that you're depending on the Lord for all of

that. Yeah, and the and the fact I

mean, work is good here is correctly work.

We were created to work for sure.

Work is not a product of the fall cursed work is a product of

the fall thorns and thistles. But we were created to work, to

bear fruit. And so sometimes we get that

mixed up because we don't take a break from it.

So then it feels like a burden all the time, or it feels like

the only thing that I have to do in order to create goodness for

myself as opposed to seeing the glory of God in all of my work.

So when you when you take a Sabbath and when you cease, you

get rest and it prepares you to go back to work, you know, to

bear God's image and to create. And so, yeah, there's probably a

longer conversation in there around around the work and

Sabbath. But ultimately you kind of took

us down this path of striving that leads to weariness abiding

that should result in some kind of rest.

And it seems like Sabbath is the gospel.

Hope I think is what you. Said, I mean, it is what the

Lord holds out for us that he is the Lord of the Sabbath.

I mean, he took all the rules and regulations that group of

people felt around the Sabbath and said, no, no, no, no, hold

on it. It's resting in me.

It's not all these rules or strict regulation.

And so I would say that too, like we've got to hold on to the

like the promise and the hope that not everything has to be

accomplished for us to abide. So when people say, well, I

don't have time for Sabbath, OK, well, God paused in the creation

order and we have to be good with, OK, not everything's

complete. But this is where my life source

is. My life source is not in the

things that I'm accomplishing or doing, which is what the

American culture would say is true.

So we can't hold that as ultimate.

We have to cause and rest and actually go to our life source

to be sustained. And all of that has to be so

rooted in the truth of the gospel because otherwise, like

our feelings will lie to us. Because for someone who's not

used to abiding or like you were talking about depending on our

bent, like I am very high responsibility.

And so when I go to abide, I'm like, I feel like I'm being

irresponsible. Am I being lazy right now?

You know, or it just feels like something's wrong.

And if I trust those feelings, then I'm never going to abide

'cause I'm like feels like I'm doing the wrong thing.

It can be like I'm sinning, you know, but like that is that has

to be counteracted with the truth of Scripture of God is in

charge. God is responsible and apart

from Christ, I can do nothing and God will never abandoned me.

Like I can be safe and secure here, you know.

So some of it is, I mean, we just have to know the Scripture,

we have to know the gospel and apply that to all of these.

Yeah. And I like I would even say for,

you know, you and I admitting that like our personal events

are that way from everything that we've walked through over

the last nine months, the Lord has been so gracious to us in

the way that He's just shown that like his faithfulness and

His goodness is something we get to experience.

And I think that he holds that out for all of us believers that

if we are obedient in the Sabbath because that is

something he has instructed his people to do.

Like he called us to be holy and set apart.

And a part of that is Sabbath thing and abiding and resting.

I hold and cling on or cling to the promise that He is going to

be faithful and good in that moment, in the abiding, and that

He'll take care of all the things that I'm worried about or

feel like is going to fall to the wayside if I take this time.

Because it is something that He has asked me to be obedient in.

And I just believe truly that He will be faithful in that.

Yeah, Psalm 4610 is kind of ringing in my ears now.

Depending on which translation, it's either cease striving or be

still and know that I am God. I think that's what you're

describing for sure. Like that.

That knowledge is not a mental knowledge.

It's an experiential. It is settling of the soul.

And, and sometimes that comes when we're laying in a hospital

room and we can't do anything. But how?

What a blessing it would be to be able to get there in other

ways each and every day, so that we could understand.

And really know the Father's love and all that.

So sure, that's great. Thank you, Michaela.

Yeah, Michaela, thanks for just sharing.

And I mean, just telling us your story and being vulnerable with

all of that. Would you mind just praying for

our people and just that we would be people who abide and

just remain connected to the vine?

Yeah. For sure.

Do you have any father? I just thank you for all just

the work that you've done in my own life and just all the

different things that you're teaching me and our family about

you and I just pray over everyone that is just listening

to these words. I pray that you will just make

clear the path before them that you will help them to discern

what it looks like to make a biting a part of their regular

life as a rhythm in their life. God, I just I've watched you be

faithful and good and all of this with my own walk and in our

families. And so I just pray the same for

all of our people in our church. And I thank you for being the

vine, for holding out the hope that spring is always coming and

that when we do mess up and we have seasons where we feel

barren and feels like those desert movements.

I just, I'm thankful that you have always just had open arms

for us to return to you. And I just pray that you will

just teach our people that continue teaching me that be

gracious to me when I need to be to return.

And I just pray the same thing for our people really sings in

your name. Thanks again for listening to

the Grace Church Podcast. I'm so grateful to Michaela for

sharing her story and wisdom with us.

This topic is helpful for you. We've linked another podcast in

the show notes featuring Pastor John Tyson talking about Sabbath

and rest. He explains more about Marva

Don's 4 categories of Sabbath thing, ceasing, resting,

embracing, and feasting. So be sure to check that out.

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