On the Street on the Christian 7th-Day Sabbath

Christ, let me be sure of my salvation; it's the only thing I've got. These words came to mind after I had spent the first hours of the Sabbath, not like a happy hermit in my home but out among the masses strolling along on a mild Floridian night.

The Million-Year Sabbath

As a child I once had a nightmare that all the days of the week were Sabbaths. The Sabbath was not so bad, but it wasn't as fun as, say, Sunday morning. Sundays seemed to last forever.

These days, however, I look forward to the Sabbath and wish that every day was a Sabbath. Yes, there are things I miss doing on the Sabbath, but I'm realizing that they are becoming less and less important.

The only two things that I would miss if the Sabbath were an everyday thing would be working and buying. You can't very well live without those two activities.

During the past four years I have toyed with different names for my interest in a longer Sabbath day. Originally I thought of a conceptual Sabbath which would last from sunset on Friday and not end until Sunday sunrise. The busy nature of living in the material world suggested another approach, the Seven Minute Sabbath which could be observed at any point throughout the week. The Eternal Sabbath was a term for a Sabbath day that never started or ended. It simply was.

Even a good thing has to end sometime so it can begin again. For this reason I've come up with the concept of the million-year Sabbath. The only place we can keep such an impossibly long Sabbath is in the New Earth where, in theory, we wouldn't need to buy or earn a living and no activity would be inappropriate to engage in during the million-year-long Sabbath.

In the meantime enjoy the Sabbath and imagine it's going to last a million years.

Loving the Sabbath, Hating my Sinfulness

All week long I wait for the Sabbath with such wistfulness that when it finally comes I realize that I longed for it too intensely. Now that it has finally arrived, I take it for granted and am aware of my confinement. I cannot do what I want to do. There are only so many activities or thoughts that are allowed to me on this holiest of days.

As the sun set I worried about the many details of keeping the Sabbath holy. I decided not to worry about the details of Sabbath keeping, but rather, to focus my attention on my relationship with Christ. Let Christ take care of how I keep the Sabbath holy.

I can worry about whether the house is ready for the Sabbath; it is not; it rarely is. I can worry about what I'm going to do when I am not in church and the Sabbath hours find me, once again, on my own with too many hours to experience while it is still Sabbath.

You have to admit, the Sabbath is--pardon the expression--the oddest of all the commandments. For example, today I thought that if I purposely delay my observance of the Sabbath by a minute or 10 or 60, have I invalidated the remaining 23 hours of Sabbath still in play? Unlike the commandment to not kill, steal, take God's name in vain, etc., once you break those commandments, you have broken the entire commandment and not just part of it. But the Sabbath, you see, is one long 24 hour experience. You are then able to break it or observe it once an hour, or perhaps more than that or less than that it you are careful. Or should one foolishly decide that since you've already broken it by not starting it on time or by breaking it half way into it, it is pointless to try to keep the rest of the hours that remain? Some may find the thought improper; others simply practical.

This can't be what God had in mind. Before the Sabbath begins I ask God to make me holy so I can keep his Sabbath holy. I also ask him to fill me with his Spirit and move me to keep his Sabbath holy, and for that matter, to keep all his commandments holy.

I don't know if I've ever really kept the Sabbath as one is supposed to keep it. I'm sure that even in the midst of no work, no play, church all day, or charitable visits to nursing homes, etc., I could very well have been breaking the Sabbath at the same time that I was, with good intent, trying to keep it.

Violations of all the other commandments are truly grotesque violations of some spiritual or basic human value, e.g., respect for one's God or one's fellow human being. But the Sabbath is a different concept all together.

I'm suddenly reminded of a church member who was so concerned about violating the sabbath by being awake during most of it--I guess he knew himself quite well--that he'd go to bed after church so as not to be conscious during the rest of the 7th-day Sabbath. Judging from the sister who told us about it, his intentions were sincere. However, by not engaging in more useful activities during the Sabbath, he was, in fact, breaking the Sabbath. Still, one does spend eight hours sleeping during the normal sleep period of the Sabbath, so why not sleep for the rest of the non-church part of it. I'm just trying to understand this brother's fear of breaking the Sabbath.

I used to feel that after I had spent half an hour or so reading the bible, I could open up my Sabbath post-vesper experience by engaging in cultural and spiritual activities like listening to symphonic music, or watching thoughtful DVDs about stimulating topics. Lately, I find myself unsure of these activities and usually spend the rest of the post-vesper Friday night Sabbath either reading the Spirit of Prophecy, reading the Bible until I get sleepy, or watching the local Christian network, Trinity Broadcasting Network. Sometimes that puts me to sleep, as well. I don't mean its content does, but rather the passiveness of these activities invites sleep quicker than a run in the park would. Of course, the park is deserted at this hour, except for hoodlums and such, so I use that example as an extreme example of a healthy, life-affirming activity on a Sabbath's Friday evening.

Or I can spend the entire Sabbath blogging, as I am now doing, and perhaps that will solve the problem for an hour or so.

Sometimes, though, PBS, has wonderful religion programs. Of course, most of them are pretty liberal, but it's religion, nevertheless. The History channel has a show on Friday nights about Extreme Survival in nature. That's so painful to watch, that I seldom fall asleep watching it.

Oh that God would have mercy on me and enable me to keep the Sabbath without being self-conscious about it. How wonderful if I could offer a Sabbath full of devotion by keeping the Sabbath enjoyably, and finally, lovingly. Amen.

Simple Sabbath Musings

I'm sad to report that the last Sabbath I had was a bit odd. I guess I looked around and didn't find the right groove at the church I normally attend. It's filled with nice people. Unfortunately, I know very few of them well enough to walk up to them and strike a conversation even after three years of attending the same church.

The rest of the Sabbath was spent reading the bible and staying out of the hot Florida sun. At least I got to hear a new song in church and was able to let that wonderful melody & lyric carry me through to this very moment. I think, for me at least, music and hymns have always been what my church experience has always been about. Each hymn is both praise as well as a melodic prayer. What could be better than that?

I respect your goal of "dying to self". I too pray that, though not in those exact words. Dying of anykind gives me the willies. I prefer to ask God to empty me of self and of all else. I guess it's the same thing without using the "d" word. I want to live for Christ. I want to be like him and less and less like myself. That doesn't sound exactly right either. How could I not be myself? I think God wants us to draw closer to him, but still retain our personality. Otherwise, we'd all be the same in heaven and heaven would not be such an interesting place.

I pray that you enjoy what's left of this week and that you have the very best Sabbath this time around that you've ever had.

God bless,

Yours in Christ, Raul

[exceprt from a letter to a friend]

7-minute Sabbath

Only when you don't have something, a constant weekly Sabbath guaranteed, do you take it for granted. Not that I didn't enjoy the Sabbath years ago when I had every Sabbath off from work. But it goes beyond that. Sometimes it's Monday night or Thursday evening and as I walk my dog and look up at the southern skies I celebrate a 7-minute sabbath. I also refer to this concept as the eternal Sabbath. I like to think that the Sabbath can be a state of mind that you can dip into any time during the week, as well as the regular 24 hour Sabbath that also arrives on its regular schedule.

I also think of Christ as being my Sabbath rest. The words of Matthew 11 come to me often during the busy work week: "Come to me [Christ] you who have heavy burdens and you will find rest for your souls." Right then & there I claim that promise for Christ's instant rest. It's a rest that you can tap into, must tap into to stay on course, any time you need it and not just once a week. So I thank God for allowing me to enjoy the 7-minute Sabbath dozens of times a week, or at times, 2 or 3 times a day. Thank God for the Sabbath in all its forms, real and conceptual.

I pray that the Lord help you to live in the Spirit more and more and bless you in every possible way.

What impressed me about the chapter [Acts of the Apostles chapter two by E.G. White] I mentioned before was it's obsession with things dealing with the Holy Spirit. I got the impression that one could live and breathe the Spirit constantly. What bliss that must be!

I wish you the best of Sabbaths beginning tomorrow. But I also wish for you a dozen 7-minute Sabbath's during your working week.

God bless, Yours in Christ

[adapted from an email I sent off to a distant friend]

Eternal Sabbath

Lord God,

Oh that I would keep your Holy Sabbath every day of the week,

Oh that I would enjoy the blessings of the Sabbath not just one day a week, but daily.

Let me enjoy the eternal Sabbath day that neither begins or ends.

It simply is.

Like you, Lord, it has no beginning or end.

It is a timeless reality.

Let me experience the timelessness of the Sabbath every day of my life.

Eternal Sabbath Sun

Lead me to your eternal Sabbath, oh Lord.
Lead me to a land where the sun never sets.

With the coming of the night, the Sabbath ends, tomorrow. Tonight, as I closed my bible and prayed after having read several Psalms, the words about the eternal Sabbath came to me suddenly. I was surprised by the choice of words. What could possibly motivate such a desire? I had anticipated the Sabbath all day and now that it had arrived I realized that it would leave just as suddenly 24 hours hence.

Simple Pleasures

God disappears behind the shocking white clouds and the heat of the mid-afternoon sun. When I find any shade worth pursuing, he reappears and I'm grateful for the gentleness of his shade. The entire country is experiencing a heat wave and unbearable humidity. I've felt heat like this before and it's humid all summer long, here in South Florida.

For years I've wanted to document what I see around me, especially as I look up, as well as around me as Callisto and I live our simple pre-Sabbath lives. Suddenly, with no strong intention to own one, a free camera phone appeared in my hand last night--courtesy of ATT's upgrades--and I was able to capture the blazing white ecstasy of a Floridian summer sky this afternoon. The search for other people's close approximations of what I see daily has come to an end, and for that I am grateful.

Suddenly I'm reminded of Bob Dylan's lyric, "She's got everything she needs. She's an artist. She don't look back." While I can't claim to be an artist of any kind, but I'm learning not to look back at what was and at what might have been.

Last week I talked with a Buddhist for the first time in my life. I mentioned I was a Christian and that I wanted to know what was worth sharing about the Buddhist vision of life. The simple response, was "there is no past. Life begins from this moment on." I understood this to mean, in the context of the larger conversation, that whatever regrets or expectations or anything, really, that had gone before, ceases to have ultimate value from this moment on.

I was once guilty of "living in the past" and loving it. I couldn't understand those who considered it less noble than living in the present. While we can't completely ignore the past--at least I cannot--I'm realizing that more and more people live for today and for the promise that tomorrow brings.

If you live in the past, you will die there.

So much time was spent hiding from the heat, that fifteen minutes before the sun set, I knew I had to get out and about if only to have the luxury of being able to return home again. There were restaurants still open where I might run into old friends from town, but their conversation probably wouldn't be very conducive to enjoying the Sabbath. I opted, instead, to order some Chinese food at the local take-out and head home.

On my way home I did get an invitation by phone to see Marc Anthony & Jennifer Lopez' new movie, El Cantante. These friends know I go to church on Saturday morning, but I don't know them well enough to explain why I don't accept invitations to movies on Friday nights. Simply, I said that I had a standing order tonight.

Once home, I enjoyed the simple pleasures of a Weight Watchers Chinese menu and found it lacked zing, but at least it was free of starch, sugar, salt and all the things that give Chinese food its flavor. I was thankful for the healthy meal, nevertheless.

I read a chapter from The Great Controversy and was grateful that I still had an interest in reading a book that some, or many, Adventists stopped reading decades ago. I took what I could from it and then settled down to my progressive time travel film retrospectives I now closely associate with Sabbaths in the early 21st century.


Happy Sabbath to you in whatever decade you happen to be reading this.

Quantum Sabbath

The Sabbath does not really exist until I actually observe it. Neither does it become reality until I observe myself observing the Sabbath. So many possible Sabbaths can potentially exist. The Sabbath can take me down so many different paths or it can take me done none. I can stay at home if that is my decision. Of course, that is itself one very real Sabbath manifestation regardless of it not being with other Sabbath observers or in locations other than my home.

A Sabbath at home can help me focus more on that still small voice that Elijah heard. It can be more of a meditative Sabbath. A Sabbath at home is quieter than in the sometimes noisy church I attend. A Sabbath at home is spent with the Holy Three: Father, Son and Spirit.

A Sabbath in nature can take on transcendent aspects. An afternoon of contemplating the ever-changing skies and the myriad bird songs that dart in and around the lakes of trees and grass, can be more satisfying than spending an entire day in church attending one meeting after another.

A Sabbath of familiar friends and acquaintances at church can be a foretaste of the Eternal Sabbath of the future. There everyone will have no other focus but to worship together and enjoy each other's company.

Sabbath-Keeping (Stream of Consciousness)

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Hebrews 4:9,10 (NIV)

When Adventism began they were all farmers. The Hasidim in Brooklyn, New York, all are self-employed and all shut their businesses down on their Sabbath Day. When ancient Israel was founded the entire nation could decide to shut down on the Seventh day. They could decide if they wanted to let the farm rest one day a week. Now only those who own their own business have the leisure of opening their business or not on the seventh day. Of course, some think it vitally important to avoid working on the Sabbath even if it means that you work below your potential or, in drastic cases, don't work at all because all the jobs you are qualified for require you to work on the Sabbath.

I once shared the Adventist obsession with avoiding working on the Seventh day at any cost with a Reformed Jewish woman and she said that the Jewish parent is greatly concerned for providing for their family. If the need arose to work on the Seventh day they would do so. After all, how can you tell your child that there's no bread on the table because daddy refused to work on Saturday and now we have to grin and bear it?

What if Sabbath keeping were more than 24 hours of no work, no play and no--you fill in the blanks? What if it was the spirit of the Sabbath that you were in need of and not the letter of the 24-hour Sabbath day? What did Jesus mean when he said that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath? Did he mean if you need to work occasionally on the Sabbath in order to provide for your family or for yourself, that you could and it would still be alright with him? Or does he insist that you trust him and go through whatever you have to go through so you don't work on the Sabbath day? In a vague way, thinking that you will fall out of grace with Jesus because you occasionally work on Saturday or Friday night in order to keep your job and your livelihood sounds like legalism to me. Insisting that you must refrain from gainful employment on the Sabbath sounds like righteousness by works to me. And you know, that's the ugliest abomination of all--to think that by doing or not doing something you are saved or not saved.

What of opera singers or musicians or politicians who have significant or important events or meetings on the Sabbath day, are they sabbath breakers or are they good professionals by doing what they studied and sacrificed for all their life, even if it's on the occasional Sabbath? I recall that Faith Esham sang in operas on the Sabbath day and that Herbert Blomstedt conducted symphonies on the Sabbath day though he never rehearsed during the Sabbath Day. Were they blessed for it or was it Adventism on the edge?

But what about gasoline station owners or attendants. Can you imagine if every gas station owner or employee took up strict Sabbath keeping? What would happen in a crisis where you had no gas but had to fill up in order to get to the hospital or to deal with some other emergency? You couldn't very well tell that person, "you should have filled up before the Sabbath when the gas stations were open."

What about ministers, don't they break the Sabbath by working at being ministers on the Sabbath day instead of staying at home with their families and preaching to them? You know there's a lot of minister's kids who leave the church or were never really in it when most thought they were just because they were in church on Sabbath morning. Occasionally a minister and his family should take a holiday from the rigors of church on Saturday and spend a day in nature getting in touch with each other and with God.

What did the writer of Hebrews mean by saying that we should enter God's Sabbath rest and cease from our own work? For some people the effort put into keeping the Sabbath entails more work than not keeping it so fanatically or literally. Did the writer mean a literal 24 hour rest or was he referring to a spiritual rest that transcends time and space? Can you rest even while driving at 70 miles an hour on a Sabbath day getting to and from church events with all the stress and risks involved in that mad dash to get to church on time for the first minutes of Sabbath School? The best place to spend the Sabbath, again, might be with your loved ones or close friends instead of in the complexities of a structured and rigid religious environment.

Can you break the Sabbath even while you're sitting in church trying not to think about the sexy Adventist in the seat in front of you? Do you move your seat and keep on moving it till you run out of sexy Adventists or out of seats at a given moment? As someone said long ago, "Adventists are the best temptation of all." Not that one invites temptation, but then again, one cannot be totally oblivious to the best that one's local church has to offer, if only visually speaking. What does one do on the Sabbath day in that case with so much eye candy on display in their Sabbath best? One grins and bears it and hopes for a better day, or for a church with plainer people and not as sexy.

Can anyone really say that s(he) has kept the Sabbath? The very thought of 24 four sacred hours spent in total connection to God sounds like an ideal that is beyond our own power to achieve. By connecting to the source of infinite power it is then not an ideal, but a reality. But how does one know that the connection has been made and that one has, in fact, truly kept the Sabbath day in all its purity and devotion? One can refrain from thinking non-Sabbath thoughts as best as one can, or doing non-Sabbath things, i.e., shopping and working out at the gym, but does that constitute true Sabbath keeping? Some may think their efforts amount to Sabbath keeping when, in fact, they are nothing more than formalistic or legalistic exercises that occur but one day a week. Would it not be more spiritually fulfilling to observe the spiritual nature of the Sabbath all week long and all day long, as often as one was able to take a moment for religious reflection?

If the Sabbath is more than just a 24-hour phenomenon, if it is an Endless Sabbath, a virtual Sabbath that has its power supply in the actual seventh day, but that, nevertheless, comes in and out of your waking consciousness as many times as you have need of the spiritual nourishment that true Sabbath-keeping provides, then it could truly be said that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

Someone told me once of a neighbor who was so concerned that he'd not keep the Sabbath holy that once he got home from church and had a light meal, he'd go to sleep so as not to provide opportunity for breaking the Sabbath. Of course, one smiles, because in going to bed for the purpose of the not breaking the Sabbath, he was, in fact, breaking the Sabbath. But at least the man's heart was in the right place. Or was it?

Then there are different styles or intensities of Sabbath keeping. Years ago I heard a friend say that when he moved from the Northeast to California he didn't feel comfortable with his Adventist relatives on Sabbath afternoon activities. They'd invite him to go on a yacht and enjoy the water in the San Francisco bay. He would routinely opt to stay home or look for churches with Sabbath afternoon programming instead of joining his Adventist relatives in their preferred Sabbath afternoon activities. The poor have no such problems as they don't have yachts, or oftentimes even a car to get them to church and have to rely on public transportation or their own two feet. Being poor solves a host of problems while creating others.

After I've read my bible and sung a Sabbath vesper hymn on Friday night and washed the few dishes I dirtied in preparing dinner for one, and feeding Callisto, my retriever, I then look for the least offensive DVD I can watch. I was surprised that last Friday night, I enjoyed and lived to tell the tale of watching Pedro Almodovar's Volver with Penelope Cruz. It was a family-oriented movie, but of course, not for every family. But for my family of one, and of course, Callisto never complains as to what I watch, it felt just right for my progressive Adventist Sabbath. I even got a timer to turn on the TV and the DVD player during the Sabbath so I wouldn't have to break that old Judaic injunction about not turning on the light.

Happy Sabbath, however you keep, or try to keep, the holy Seventh day.

Eradicating Legalism in the Adventist Church

"The righteous will live by his faith [alone.] Habakuk 2:4 (NIV)

Sitting in a pew near the front of the church, to not be distracted by the occasional conversations that my congregation produces frequently, I was saddened by a pre-offering appeal made by a church member. He started to rattle off a list of sacrifices, or offerings, that ancient Israelites offered when ceremonial law was still in place on planet Earth. Among those he mentioned was a special live offering for sins committed. He summed it up by saying, "so you see brethren, there are lots of sacrifices (offerings) in the bible that one should think about when thinking of what or how much to give today. I've been attending this particular church only two years and I had never heard legalism rear its ugly head as much as I did last Saturday.

While I tried to listen to the sermon as best I could, I occasionally was compelled to jot down some reflections that this offering call made on me.

I'm without a computer these days and I've got only 41 minutes left at the public library. So I apologize if these are mere reflections and nothing more. Thank you for your understanding.

There's a deadly quality to legalism. Two years ago I used to pray a strange prayer. I had forgotten it until this moment. I went something like this: "Lord, save me from legalism, which is worse than death." [I remembered the original phrase late last night. "Lord, save me from legalism, for in legalism there is only death."] I prayed that wholeheartedly. Perhaps I need to start praying that strange prayer again.

Legalism is so deadly to me that I wondered if because of it, Adventism was dying, in a limited sense? As secularism increases in society, we need less not more legalism in the Adventist church. As our youth are leaving and some never to return, legalism is, perhaps one of the causes. As Adventism splinters internally into different isms, i.e., ultra-conservatism, progressivism, cultural adventism, postmodern adventism, etc., is legalism party to blame?

Is the golden age of Adventism behind us? Was it during the 50s, 60s and 70s? Or is it still ahead of us? It is said that Adventism is fading in parts of North America, Europe and Australia. I'm told that only in the third world, parts of Africa, parts of South America, parts of Asia it is still thriving and alive. Is legalism causing that growth there and is it causing a slow death in the other declining areas? Or is righteousness by faith alive in well in the third world, but not in the places where Adventism is dying out slowly?

I'm tired of legalism. Aren't' you? What can we do about it?

It almost felt like the fear one used to get before knocking on some one's door before you gave them a smile and literature. I went to the speaker after church and I congratulated her for the good points in her sermon. I explained to her my concern with the legalism in the Adventist church and I asked her if in the future she could dwell more on Christ our righteousness. I told her I was especially concerned about the young people and how important it was for them to hear those worlds. Not appeals to give more offerings or tithes, or to come to prayer meeting more often so as not to miss out on a special blessing, or other similar mildly legalistic appeals. I told her that I never heard any sermons about righteousness by faith in Christ until I was almost 18 years of age. It was the best news I had ever heard. It made Adventism come alive for me.

Other suggestions to rid Adventism of legalism might be to email every Adventist publication or magazine and complain when you read something that smacks of legalism to you. Write Bill Knott at the Adventist Review. Write Cliff Goldstein at the Sabbath School Quarterly. Write the conference president. Tell him to keep legalism out of the publication in question and keep it out of Adventism. If you hear a church member saying anything that smacks too highly of legalism, take him aside courteously and speak to him or her of your concerns. If you lose friends in the name of ridding Adventism of legalism, those are the casualties of the war on legalism. Perhaps they were never very dear friends to begin with. Perhaps you need newer, less legalistic friends in and out of church.

Adventism needs to be simplified, cleansed, re energized. Legalism is the enemy. Righteousness by faith in Christ is our ally. These three thoughts came to me in church last Sabbath as I thought how to simplify Adventism. Look to Jesus Christ. Seek the daily baptism of the Holy Spirit. Read your bible and pray.

In closing, let me speak of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is beautiful. It, however, has to be kept naturally, effortlessly, spiritually. When you have to make an effort to keep the Sabbath you are not, in fact, keeping the Sabbath. Ask God to make you holy so you can keep his Sabbath holy. Ask God to fill you with his Spirit of righteousness so you can love Christ and keep his commands. Ask him to fill you with his Spirit of love so you can treat others as you would like to be treated.

Lord, save me from legalism, for in legalism there is only death.

God bless you all. God bless Adventism.

Blackbird Raining Skies

After seeing Pedro Almodovar’s Volver starring Penelope Cruz, without warning, my mood felt lighter than it’s been in a while. The afternoon was brighter than I had remembered it from previous sunnier-than-gold afternoons. Chigago’s Transit Authority album blared from my car stereo and matched the windy and cool South Florida afternoon.

Feeling so good, I thought why not go to Friendly Seas, the restaurant I used to live in years ago & enjoy a tall glass of cool orange blossom tea, as well as one of their garden burgers or Buffalo burgers. I might even meet another friendly solitary diner who was looking for company if only while she or he was in the outdoor patio. I decided at the last minute not to turn left, but to turn right and keep on going home. It was almost as if someone else was doing the driving. I thought it odd that I no longer could decide whether to turn right or to turn left. Why complain? Perhaps it was better that some unseen force was turning the wheel for me, or at least, with me. I had to feed Callisto, my golden retriever, and perhaps after I had taken care of that detail I’d still be fired up and roaring to go out again into the elegance of a bright afternoon.

I almost made it safely out of my black car when I looked up at the sky & saw hundreds of black birds flying east & southeast in what seemed like chaotic patterns of flight or gliding pleasure. The sky was still light but overcast with smoky cloud wisps taped onto purer white cottony cloud formations. Willingly trapped in my slightly warm car I couldn’t stop gazing at the sight of those relentless flocks of black birds trapped in oceans of air. Surely it would only be a minute or two then the birds would all fly away & I’d be able to resume my walk upstairs to feed Callisto. The blackbirds continued to swirl in ever-increasing numbers. How long could I stay in my car? What if neighbors wondered what I was doing in my car so long? Who was I waiting for? Why didn’t I take off or go upstairs? I decided not to be concerned with what others might think of me looking toward the western skies at what other people, no doubt, thought was an empty sky. Perhaps it was empty to them, but to me it was full of possibilities.

I thought of Wallace Stevens’ Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. In that poem it was winter in the Northeast. In my blackbird experience it was an early summer-like winter in South Florida. Had the blackbirds kept on flying all afternoon long, I probably would have stayed in my black car looking at the endless arrival and departure of hundreds of sky birds in black. It wasn’t only the blackbirds that entranced me. It was a sense of well-being and of wonder that coincided with the blackbird phenomenon. I almost thought that perhaps this enhanced sense of being, of contentment, of simple acceptance of things-as-they-were and not things-as-they-should-be was how my life would be from this moment on.

I thought that it would be nice to have someone by my side in the car to point out the blackbird reverie, but then I remembered that Wallace Stevens’ wife could not relate to the nature-drenched poetry that others read and analyzed in introduction-to-poetry classes in the 70s. She just didn’t get why anyone would want to contemplate for such lengths of time, realities that were best noted, then ignored. If no one else was there to join me in the silent symphony of blackbird flight, then at least God was taking note of the contemplative moment with me. I didn’t dwell too much on how it was there because of Him, but I’m glad He turned my head upward ever so gently and coincidentally in order not to miss the invasion of winged things in the slowly darkening skies.

This had to have a coda, this endless symphony of flight & I looked in amazement as yet another movement started quietly then grew louder & more enjoyable as the next wave of blackbirds continued heading east and southeast. I had to look higher and more to the southwest in order to see a fading flock of blackbirds continue the silent symphony. I thought I’d never leave my car till night erased the silent music from the blackbird clouds.

The birds decided to finally end their 20-minute chance-like symphonic dance and I gathered my cd and excess time and headed upstairs to feed Callisto & to await another pre-Sabbath Friday night at home.

Creative Approaches to Sabbath Keeping

Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." -- Mark 2:27 (New International Version)

I once heard an elderly man years ago say that Friday Sabbath nights were the loneliest nights because he couldn't turn on the television to keep himself company. He got so depressed with the silence of his apartment that he decided that once he had read his bible for a meaningful amount of time, he would then watch situation comedies. This was told me in the late 80s. Perhaps situation comedies were more family-oriented then than they are today, or perhaps he watched reruns on TBS or Nick at Night.

Yes, of course, one can always seek out a congregation where they have Friday night meetings, but that isn't always possible, or desirable depending on one's personality or travel requirements or the danger present in big cities late at night when taking mass transit. Even those with a car can make a wrong turn and find oneself in an undesirable neighborhood. So much for a restful Sabbath evening.

I am not making excuses for wanting to turn on the television on Friday nights or Saturday afternoons after you come home from church. Sometimes there are no afternoon programs and you are not in the mood to visit hospitals, prisons, hand out literature, etc. Additionally, not everyone is allowed to install a satellite dish in their condo apartment or rented apartment for the Hope channel or similar religious programming.

In the end it depends on one's conscience and what interferes with your Sabbath connection with God. Sometimes on the Discovery channel or the History Channel or on PBS there are great programs that are of a scientific, cultural or religious nature which provide meaningful content for the non-secular Sabbath hours.

Some of what I'm saying might even apply to people who live with a significant other or family. After a while even your mate or children are talked out and are itchy to do something else other than engage you or be engaged in conversation.

The bottom line is, if you feel that the only things to do are read the bible, the sabbath school lesson, the Spirit of Prophecy or sing hymns all night till its time to go to bed or time to have vespers on Saturday night, but you don't want to do only those things, what does that mean? How do you handle the desire to do more creative things? I've sometimes thought, especially in the beginning of my Sabbath keeping experience, that if it feels disagreeable to keep on singing, or reading the bible, watching the Passion of the Christ or other religious film for the hundredth time, by continuing to do so, you are not really keeping the Sabbath & you are not enjoying your life very much on a Friday or Saturday afternoon.

On the other hand, if you naturally and eagerly continue reading the bible or singing hymns or doing the other spiritual, non-secular activities I've mentioned here, then it's natural and truly the result of a live connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. But even the latter reach a point when they do long for a change whether that same day or the following week. The Sabbath, after all, keeps on coming at you week after week. Sometimes it seems like it's the same Sabbath you kept a week or a month ago, or at any rate, a continuation of the previous Sabbath day. This is both a lovely thought as well as a challenging one, especially for those of us who live alone, whether out of necessity or by choice.

My suggestions are as follows: read the bible, sing or listen to spiritual music, but when you've had your fill of those activities, do other things. Redefine what constitutes spiritual music for you. I find little time to enjoy most of my orchestral music collection during the week. Sometimes a little Mahler or Satie or Bartok on a Friday night or Sabbath afternoon adds a transcendent element to an otherwise non-eventful segment of hours. Be as creative as the Lord had made you in your life. Don't start watching the Lord of the Rings on a Friday night unless you really discern all of the spiritual and mythic-religious themes in Tolkien's work. If you're watching it just to pass the time, or to be merely entertained, it probably won't be conducive to a meaningful Sabbath evening.