We had a congregational meeting recently. As people were sharing their sense of excitement and also concern about plans for coming year, a theme kept emerging. It had to do with people feeling stressed and worn out by the pace of their lives. Even as they felt excited about the possibilities lying ahead, they were anxious about anything that would add more to their calendars and demand more of their energy.

There are a lot of people in church who are approaching burn out. I've heard it in church groups and in social settings. We're almost expected to complain about how busy we are and about the pace of life. At the same time, it's my perception that being busy boosts our egos and helps us feel worthwhile. Can you imagine not having enough going on that you don't need a Day Planner?

All of this seems to be part of living in U. S. society. Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann says that we try to do more and more in an effort to be adequate. That's what it takes and it feels like a treadmill. In such a world, faith and church are often one more item to schedule and one more bill to pay. Experiences, including religious ones, become commodities to be bought and sold. It appears that American society knows very little about Sabbath

The fourth commandment is to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. In the Exodus version of the Ten Commandments, we need to observe Sabbath because God "made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day." Since we are made in God's image as creators of life, we need to emulate our Creator by observing Sabbath. In Deuteronomy, the reason for observing Sabbath, for keeping it holy, is that "you were a slave in the land of Egypt." Brueggemann points out that Sabbath is a way of living that affirms God's kingdom of abundance. It is a time to refrain from the process of making a living to remember that we all come before God as equals. It is a time to let go of striving for adequacy through our labor and embrace the fundamental reality that we are created acceptable to God - who we are and as we are.

Sabbath is basic to the journey of faith, but it is in significant tension with our current societal culture. The pain we feel is the result of our wanting to live in both worlds - to have it both ways. The message of our culture is that we need to strive and labor in order to escape the specter of scarcity and be adequate.  That message does not coexist peacefully with God's abundance - that we are fully and completely acceptable, adequate, and wonderful.

Ultimately, faith invites us to "ride out of the kingdom of scarcity on a wave of abundance" (Brueggemann). The challenge we face is to change our perspective and see the rest of life through the lens of faith and abundance. The question for churches may be this: how to invest ourselves in spiritual formation without just adding one more thing. Can we approach biblical abundance as not another commodity?

My questions at this point are more compelling than my answers. I still try to have it both ways - to appease the demands of the culture by trying to achieve adequacy while also satisfying the perceived demands of the church to be more like Jesus. Once in a great while, I think I am almost good enough to pull it off. That achievement allows me to live the lie a little longer.

The invitation of faith is to let go an attitude of scarcity and embrace an attitude of abundance. Curiously, I find that the scarcity is really hard to leave.  It is addictive.  Ironically, the only way I usually make such a challenging change in my life is when the pain of trying to have it both ways gets acute enough. Maybe that's the roll burnout plays for us - making it painful enough? If so, then perhaps change is coming soon.  I am convinced that this is the issue of our lives, that this is the challenge for our journey now, and that it is the church that holds the key.

Thanks for continuing to bless me on the journey.

--Jack Price

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