What a fun Saturday Sabbath morning, right?
Since we are World Racers on a budget, we have grown accustomed to eating banana pancakes for meals quite frequently (1 banana, 2 eggs, a pinch of cinnamon, yummm!). It is also tradition that we play Jack Johnson’s “Banana Pancakes” song at least 3x while we are making said pancakes, but on that particular morning we had our squad leader Eric available with his guitar to play it for us live!
“Banana Pancakes” is now one of our team’s favorite songs to sing while noodling around our apartment day-to-day. Who am I kidding, every song is our favorite song to sing throughout the apartment! But there is one line at the end of the bridge that resonates most with me: “Wake up slow”.
So what is the heart of this blog post? Well, it is not the love of Jack’s dreamy voice or the fun song.
Wake up slow. Slow. Stillness. Stillness inside of Sabbath.
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God is serious about Sabbath. He knows we need it. He knows we need that intentional, focused time with Him, desperately. Sabbath is a huge concept that I would not even try to break down because I am grasping at it myself. I simply want to share one of the many things God is teaching me in this season. Maybe this is a start to Joelle’s Sabbath and Stillness series? I am not sure, but there may be more to share in future!
I struggle with stillness. Stillness is challenging. I like to do things, and stillness means I don’t get to do things…kinda? Truthfully, I am not sure that was an accurate description because I am still learning about incorporating stillness as a spiritual discipline within Sabbath. Taking a small step further down this fun path of vulnerability… stillness means I am not ‘doing’. I am not producing, striving, or finding worth in works (ouch). Instead, I am releasing, trusting, submitting.
Hebrews 4:9-10
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.
I am fighting for Sabbath. I am fighting for the rest that my soul needs. Praise God I have the accountability of sisters around me, calling me higher and encouraging me into greater intimacy with the Lord. Right now, my start is to wake up slow one day a week, maybe whip up some banana pancakes, rest, be still, and ask what the Lord has for me.
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Fun Addendum!
My teammate Kelsey wrote the following feedback for me HOURS before I even shared this blog post with her. Isn’t it incredible to see how Holy Spirit is impressing these things on our hearts?
Feedback for Joelle:
“When you have things to do, your demeanor changes. You slip away from the present. I see you placing the weight of these responsibilities on your own shoulders. At times, I see your desire to complete an agenda or to do things as you see right unintentionally diminish the desires and efforts of others; it also isolates you and steals you away from the present. I want to encourage you to release your agenda and ask God to help you remain present in each moment by allowing yourself to trust that He is truly your provider. He beholds you as worthy without your effort. Our effort is a drop of water compared to His ocean of grace. Receiving grace and not being overcome by the weight of responsibility is something we are continually invited into. God invites you to submit the load to Him in trust and also to ask for help when you need it from those around us. God has given you a vast capacity in furthering His kingdom, but you are not just a work horse. He is working through you—you are not working for Him. Submit to him in times that you feel overwhelmed or anxiously believe that your doing is not enough. He is holding the gift of the present out for you to receive.”
Wild, right! How kind of God to offer us the gifts of accountability and sisterhood 🙂
