sabbath.

drew and i were listening to matt chandler earlier today. i have surely missed holding hands with my sweet almost-husband and driving. we have been driving ALOT because of drew's tour dates and in order to enable me to see him as much as possible, we have driven back and forth hundreds of miles. today, we drove to birmingham and listened to some of matt's earlier podcasts. todays was on sabbath. about obeying the command to observe the sabbath. matt mentioned how, when he was little, he remembers the sabbath being code for "no fun". instead, matt talked about how the sabbath is to be restful and joyful. he also mentioned that we, as a generation of laptops, iphones, and twitter, should unplug at least one day a week. chandler, a pastor of a large church, husband, and daddy of three little ones, says he checks his email just three times a week. and "no one has died! nothing disintegrated!".

i have an iphone, and am thankful for the way it has enabled me to do more, faster. but sometimes, doing more, faster, is not always better. sure, i can access every social media in a second, and i can email word documents and type papers into powerpoint. all from my phone.

chandler mentioned how it eventually reaches a point where you aren't where you are.

you can be present, but you aren't THERE. drew and i have a tuesday night date night. we havent gotten to really enjoy that commitment for four months, and tonight, our "date" means he is working and i am sitting in the audience being proud of my almost-husband. and that's okay.

we don't know which day our sabbath will be. we will hopefully get to talk about it when drew comes home after this last leg of tour. for now, i will just enjoy spending time with him, and tagging along while he works. we have been so immensely blessed by the newsong tour, full of kind people and sweet friends, some new and some old. but one day this week, i will stop being my super-ridiculously-efficient self. sunday, we will go to church, i will unplug. both of us will shut the email, switch phones to silent, and refuse to take any calls. and we will go to dinner and hold hands and take a walk. and just be.

because, like chandler said...rest on the sabbath is a shadow of something else...the cross.

resting reminds us that we are saved not by working, but by grace and with joy.

besides, i like holding drew's hand.