Music is a beautiful sensory device which causes pleasure that can turn into a distraction if not used responsibly.
This past week I’ve been forced into inactivity after getting all four of my wisdom teeth out. I’ve been stunned at just how much a procedure like that can slow down thought processes let alone one’s physical activity. Until today It’s been hard to think clearly, hard to read, hard to focus on much of anything. So I’ve been taking the opportunity to catch up on sleep since that seems to be the only thing I’ve been able to do well. But the times I wasn’t sleeping were not boring even though I didn’t really do anything. I didn’t think about anything particularly interesting, nor did I listen to vast amounts to sermons or musical literature. I just was, and being in such a state is beautiful. In fact I’d go as far as you say it’s where we find our purpose.
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
“‘If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.’
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
I’m not saying that there is a command from God to not do anything at all once a week (Jesus was clearly against this interpretation). I’m saying that if you just take the time once a week to stop diverting your attention with the physical world and focus on delighting in life itself, you’ll realize that these moments are why we exist. If you don’t delight in it, your life could be so much better. Taking pleasure when there’s nothing to take pleasure in outside of being alive is to sit on the white shores of eternity, taking in the beauty of a perfection outside your comprehension. This is the state of mind that only the sabbath rest of the creator can give you. This is the rest that nothing can ever take from you if you will simply take the time to go there.
Just stop. Turn it off. See where the default state of your heart and mind is. Discontent? Try God. Try eternity. I hope to see you there.