Time for a break

This is what Sabbath looks like.  

Actually, that's what my living room looks like, but I am taking no steps to fix it.  Because Sabbath means that not only am I free to take a break from work, but my house is also free to be in disarray.  We assembled our couch yesterday.  We did not get the boxes out of the living room.  That's okay.  The job of collapsing those boxes is a simple one.  It would probably take about thirty minutes, but I'm not going to do it today.  Today, I honestly feel like I have earned a break.  The only job that's going to get done is laundry because most of our clothes smell like car exhaust.

It is Sunday, and we are in Chandler, Minnesota. We got here Friday evening  after a week of grueling wind and snow pushing us along the I-90..  My mom's cousin commented on my facebook post, "Stay safe.  You really did pick the worst week to go." We made it from Sunnyside, Washington, to out here in four days and managed to work in pre-algebra, novel studies, and a little bit of economics ("Hey, Annika, what do you think  the state of Montana exports?"  "Trees and cows?"  "Yep, pretty much. Minerals too most likely.").  The weather was nasty.  A lot of trucks were in the ditch.  ("Annika, that is what we call a jack-knifed trailer.")  But we are here now, and that is something to be grateful for.

Gratitude is a funny thing.  We often don't use it when it is most appropriate.  Let me list all the things I specifically have to be grateful for right now.  

• Seth has a job, and it only took him two months out of graduate school to get it.  Some graduates wait two years for a job these days.  
• The job comes with a house that is the biggest house I have lived in since I graduated from college.  
• Seth, Annika, and I were literally prayed across the country this week. It was dangerous out there, and we are safe. 
• The furniture that we ordered got here at the earliest possible moment, a week after we ordered it, and was waiting for us in the garage.  
• We found winter coats for Seth and Annika at the mall on our way to dinner. 
•  Wonderful people from our congregation opened their home to us so we didn't have to sleep on air mattresses the first couple of nights.  
• Those same wonderful people also stocked our fridge and made us fudge brownies.
• And we have new phones.  (Our old mobile company doesn't have coverage out here.) 

 Did I wake up feeling grateful this morning?  No, to be perfectly honest, I did not.  

• See, I didn't sleep well, and I woke up a little under the weather.  
• And the truck that was supposed to deliver our belongings (furniture, beds, pots and pans) broke down before they could bring us our boxes.  
• There was more work to do on Monday, and I wasn't sure how it was gong to get done.

That's about it.  Gratitude -- kaphooey!  Over night, the sense of wonder and comfort vanished, and I felt like I shouldn't have to go through this.  I was tired, doggone it, and I wanted to be done.  And that's what Sabbath is for.  "On the seventh day, God rested."  God doesn't get tired, and He's never under the weather.  But He rested on the seventh day.  As I am learning, rest is good.  It's not just good for me.  It's good.  And I have the feeling that I will be much more able to handle tomorrow and all its boxes tomorrow when I'm supposed to.