Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #35
September 4, 2023
Vacation Blogs 5 of 5
Sabbath Is For God’s Creation
This is my final vacation blog for this year. As you read this I will either be packing and closing my cabin down for the winter or will already be driving on my way back home. My Sabbath is ending and I will be returning to my duties serving the congregation that God has given me to pastor. One of the things that I will be missing upon my return is my communing with nature.
I certainly love the setting of the parsonage that the congregation supplies me to live in. It is a treasure. It sits on one of the largest plots of land in our town and has a wonderful tree line in back of the property. Beyond the tree line is an embankment with a brook at the bottom. Occasionally there are ducks swimming there and once I even saw a snapping turtle swimming upstream. I can’t complain a bit about the parsonage or the property and I certainly enjoy the natural setting of it. Yet, it isn’t the same as communing with nature at my cabin.
Every morning at the cabin I wake up to the sound of woodpeckers. Whenever I walk down to the lake I can see bass jumping. Every walk I take along the quiet roads I hear more birds than cars. Canoe rides are especially enjoyable. I like to paddle to a quiet end of the lake where there are few motorboats. There I sit and listen to the sound of the lake water hitting the rocks along the shore.
The sights are even better than the sounds. In the shallow water I can see the fish and turtles as well as the occasional frog. My canoe passes through lily pads and at one point I need to lower my head to avoid hitting it on a tree branch. The particular inlet beyond that branch is exceptionally quiet with few houses there and one can hear the lack of human noise and simply hear the serenity of God’s creation. Such quiet serenity in God’s created world is perhaps the greatest Sabbath blessing that I receive each year.
Most of us who live in populated areas are inundated with the sights of human construction and human noise. Once a year I am able to hear and see only God’s nature without the clutter and noise that we humans create. Such a place is the best location I know to simply be still and know that God is God and humans are not. It revives my soul to sit in the midst of God’s creation without human distractions.
Yes, I get a bit of this in the parsonage backyard but I get so much more of this in the middle of a lake with no human noises. Being still and feeling God restores my soul. I wish that this soul-revival could last forever. God, however, has other work for me to do and this work is far away from the lake and my canoe. Perhaps this is why God paved the way for me to buy this cabin. God knew that I needed a spiritual recharge every year so that I am able to do the ministry that I am called to do.
My Sabbath is over but the spiritual recharge that it has given me will endure during this coming year.
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