1. A Safe Place: One writer remembers a friend who is a massage therapist as an
example of a safe place: “I often think of the room in which I have received
massages through the years. My friend offers me a massage whenever I’m in the
area and fits me into her busy schedule as a gift of affirmation and
encouragement. The room is decorated nicely, the lights are down low, a candle
burns, and my favorite music is playing softly. The temperature is set just
right. As I lie there on the table waiting for her to enter the room, I feel my
entire body beginning to relax and let go. There’s a profound feeling of safety
and security that envelopes me and begins to thaw out my heart. Whatever
bruises and battering my life has taken up to that point, I find myself being
able to release. That room has become a safe place to me where I find real
healing.”
God provides safe places for spiritual healing.
One of the significant safe places is a sanctuary in time where our battered and
bruised hearts can find rest and peace and healing. The Bible uses the term
“Sabbath” to describe this place in time. All through the many millennia of
history, there have been people who have enjoyed safe sanctuary there. Rabbi Abraham Heschel, the well-known Jewish
philosopher and theologian, put it this way: “In the tempestuous ocean of time
and toil there are islands of stillness where man may enter a harbor and
reclaim his dignity. The island is the Sabbath, a day of detachment from
things, instruments and practical a! airs as well as attachment to the spirit.
… The Sabbath is the exodus from tension, the liberation of man from his own
muddiness, the installation of man as a sovereign in the world of time.”
(Heschel, p. 29)
Imagine having one whole day every single week
to stop life’s busyness and chaos, and pay attention to the heart and soul of
life, to reevaluate priorities, to reengage with the most important people in
your life, to restore and revitalize your heart, mind and body, to recapture
your sense of destiny and purpose. It’s a sanctuary in time, a safe place away from
the harshness of life, to experience healing and wholeness. It’s one of God’s
great gifts to us, an amazing resource to help us experience abundance and
fruitfulness and significance.
As one author noted, just as in the Indianapolis
500 super race the cars must have pit stops for refueling and retreading and
restoring if they hope to complete the race, so the Sabbath is one of those
“pit stops” necessary for successful life. We ignore it to our detriment.
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