About a month ago I started a Sabbatical from most everything except my family and my day job. I started by going out into the woods to get a lone with God, and God was kind enough to meet me out there.
It started with a phone call to my favorite remote camping spot. When I told the lady on the other end of the line what campsite I was hoping to get she laughed, because it is always booked, but to her surprise, it was open. On the drive I caught the tail end of a sermon about Uzziah, a king of Judah, and the story intrigued me. (click on his name to read about him) Since I didn't get to hear the entire sermon, I started my time in the Word with his tale.
In short Uzziah was a king who started well, doing what was right in God's eyes and accomplishing many good things, but he overstepped, and tried to do things that we not for him to do, but only for the priests. Because of this God gave him leprosy, and he had spend the rest of his life cut off from the people and from the house of the Lord.
In my New America Standard Bible, the section heading for this particular tale reads "Pride is Uzziah's Undoing". Uzziah had done many good things, and as he became strong he also became proud. This passage acts as a very clear mirror into my own heart... The Word doesn't tell us why Uzziah went into the Temple to burn incense, instead of letting the priests do it, so I speculate that maybe he knew what should be done (burning the incense), but never didn't consider that God had a specific plan for how it should be done.
My mind tends to glaze over when I read the myriad rules for temple worship that we find in the Bible. And even though we don't follow that particular prescription for worship today, one fact becomes abundantly clear as we read those rules is that God cares deeply about how we do things and why we do them. He doesn't just plan the ends, He plans the means.
Reinforcing this thought was a passage in Acts 13. Here we read that some men were fasting and praying when they received instructions from God. But it is what they did next that grabbed my attention. Rather than jumping right up and acting on those instructions, they continued to fast and pray. When their time of prayer and fasting were ended, they carried out the instructions. I tend to listen only long enough to get the big picture, then I rush off to do things my own way, in my own strength. These guys in Acts, heard God while they were fasting and praying, and they kept listening before acting.
And so my Sabbatical continues, as I strive to learn to listen.
Praise God that you recognized the need for a Sabbatical and are taking it. Of course God is speaking to you through sermons and life situations and the Word (and more and more and more ways). I'm psyched that you're listening. Like the old Out Of The Grey song that says "He is not silent - we are not listening." Keep listening my brother and then do as he directs.
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