Sunday

Today is my sabbath. I haven't always been good at keeping a day of rest in my schedule, but I've decided it's something worth taking the time out for. And since Sunday is apparently the only day of the week without school commitments, it will be my day of rest, my day to put aside the stress of grad school and the busy distractions of the academic life. My self-imposed rule is that on Sundays I won't work on anything with a due date, i.e. homework of any sort. I'm the type of person who can get so caught up in the things I am required to do that I lose perspective on why I'm doing them. Perspective is something I don't want to lose. If I lose myself in the busywork and forget the ultimate goal of this degree I'm working on, I'm more likely to get frustrated and even doubt my choice in coming here. And of course, there will be much more life coming after I finish this two-year jaunt in academia--I can't forget that either.

This morning's sermon was about fasting. For some reason it didn't connect with me at all during the service (it took until I had a nap and a cup of tea), but now I've got something to take away from it. I don't know that I agree with everything that was said this morning, but the important part was that it's not about going through the motions. God didn't want the Israelites fasting merely "out of habit", but out of a genuine focus on him and the object of their grief--in the instance mentioned in Zechariah 7, the destroyed temple. I'm going to expand that idea and say that in all areas of our life, just going through the motions is not a good idea. Whatever we do, we should know why. And, for us Christians, the why is always connected back to God and how we are called to serve him in this world. So taking one day out of the week to step back and remind ourselves of that truth can only be beneficial for doing his will cheerfully through the rest of the week. (Hey, that's probably why he told us to do it)

At any rate, no work will be done today on my part. Blogging, however, is not work, though I seem to have run out of time for catching you up on the adventures of the weekend. Tomorrow I must get up early to meet with the supervisor of my archives internship at the Congregational Library.

-Kim