"Packaged Hugs"

Sister Ann has recently joined millions of crazed Americans in raving about the power and practicality of “THE SNUGGIE”.

She was lovingly cloaked in her electric blue Snuggie just three days previous to her 27th birthday. After returning from a scrumptious Exotic Thai feast, we were in the foyer of House 129. The box was ripped open, as her friends surrounded her with the love ‘only a Snuggie can truly bring’. Pastor Matt made a comment that the blue really brought out the sparkle in Ann’s eyes. Tears of joy rolled from her eyes; never before had she felt so loved.

Heather and Ann prayerfully paraded the Snuggie wear around the St. Paul campus. Thousands were awed by her new glamorous multi-purpose wear. “Is that a Snuggie? I think I saw that on TV!,” they delightfully squealed. (Personally, I was a little worried about the riots and jealousy a coveted Snuggie can bring to a small faith community.)

As the end of the day approached, the excitement of the Snuggie began to blend into normality of everyday life. Yet, an hour before quitting time, Tammy and Heather were pleasantly surprised to hear Ann shouting words of true comfort: “For the first time in my life, I am actually sweating in my office. This is AWESOME!.”

This testimonial is brought to you by a dear friend and co-worker of a “True Snuggie Lover and Believer.” If you want the power of a Snuggie to hug your friends, check out Walgreens, Bed Bath and Beyond, or order one on-line. They’re two for one… And, really, who wouldn’t want some Snuggie love???

Sabbath

I've been thinking about Sabbath some this Lent.

We often think about Sabbath as a day of rest. God created the world in six days and on the seventh day God rested. Sabbath means to stop, to rest to cease.

But I read another defination of Sabbath the other day. What do you think about this?

From Walter Brueggemann's book, Mandate to Difference:

"So what is it that makes people like us weary? It is not working too hard that makes us weary. It is rather, I submit, living a life that is against the grain of our true creatureliness, living a ministry that is against the grain of our true vocation, being placed in a false position so that our day-to-day operation requires us to contradict what we know best about ourselves and what we love most about our life as children of God. Exhaustion comes from the demand that we be, in some measure, other than we truly are; such an alienation requires too much energy to navigate.

"So how to move from weariness and being burdened to Jesus? Well, by sabbath! But not sabbath like one more day of golf, good as that might be. Rather, sabbath rest by taking a break from our contradicted lives of anxiety and our silenced life of coercion. Sabbath rest consists in bringing our daily existence into congruity with our true selves... Sabbath practice is to break the denial and become 'truth-tellers,' for the truth will make us sabbath-free."



It IS tiring to try to be something that we are not. If I'm honest with myself, it's not the length of my "to do" list that makes me tired. I become exhausted when those things on my to do list are not meaningful, or life-giving, or aligned with the integrity of the person God created me to be. Thinking about Sabbath the way the Bruggemann does is freeing for me. Sabbath rest is not about doing more or doing less...it's about doing, and BEING better...BEING in a way that is in line with the human being that God created me to be.

What do you think about that definition of Sabbath? How can you become a Sabbath truth-teller today?