Fighting for sabbath

Tonight is supposed to be a sabbath moment for me: our in-laws took the kids, and we have dinner reservations.  There's a part of me that stands apart and analyzes this situation.  Everything, of course, is going wrong.  Work pops up.  Family commitments infringe.  Old arguments arise.  The kids are cranky.  A scheduling conflict we hadn't thought of.  The restaurant we had reservations with went bankrupt (seriously.)  About ten times throughout this day I felt like giving up - "It's not worth it!"

But it is.

Not the dinner, not even the date - that part's not worth it!  But the connecting point is.

I'm not a big one to focus on spiritual warfare: it exists, we need to be prepared, but c'mon.  Let's not give the devil any glory, here.  The focus is to be on God, not the enemy. 

But whenever I'm preparing for any kind of "sabbath" - time set apart, whether for my own sake, for the sake of my marriage, my family, my ministry or (best of all) just to commune with God - it's never an easy road.  It's so easy to say "forget it.  I'll just make it work some other time."  But some other time rarely happens.  "It's just not worth the hassle," is the other excuse, "We'll just put the kids to bed and watch a movie at home."  (We've done that only, oh, a billion times!)

But there is something sacred about time set apart.  True, if we only look at externals, it's not worth the hassle of getting the family out of bed early on a weekend just to go to church.  But it is worth the hassle to meet with God's people.  It's not worth the hassle to explain to everyone why I'm unavailable this evening.  But it is worth it to reconnect with my husband.  It's not worth the hassle to find sitters, clear the schedule, find the money and the space to spend a day in retreat.  But it is worth it to meet with God.

Sabbaths need to be part of our routine, but we also need time set apart that's extra - unroutine.  And that will ALWAYS be a fight to make happen.

You just have to ask yourself, is it worth it?