Sundays at Hope rock. For me specifically, this past Sunday was extraordinary. My Sunday’s start off around 10 a.m., which is when I lazily roll out of bed to get ready for church. Two of the seniors on the soccer team then swing by my dorm around 10:50 and we go to Engedi Church together. I absolutely love Engedi, and every Sunday I feel very refreshed after the service. Now that I’m away from home, and church is no longer a place that I HAVE to go to, I enjoy it more than ever before.
After church, all members of the soccer team were invited over to the Blom household for a soup lunch. Toby is one of our senior captains, and his parents, Kel and Connie, are excellent hosts. In addition, Connie is the best cook I have ever met (sorry mom, your lasagna still trumps everything else!). This Sunday, twenty-nine hungry collegiate young men were greeted by the aroma of Dr. Pepper-chocolate chili, tortilla soup, cheesy garlic bread, and, my personal favorite, blueberry cobbler. We ate until our stomachs were on the verge of explosion, and then gathered around the TV to watch football. Talk about a great start to the day.
After an hour or so, most of the guys had to head back to campus. However I stuck around, soaking in the feeling of being at an actual house again. In fact, Kel challenged me to take the entire afternoon off and use it to rejuvenate my body, spirit, and mind. That was all I needed, I was not about to turn down a day filled with napping, NFL football, and more food. I can honestly say that Sunday was the first day all year that I have not opened my backpack. It was amazing. It now makes a lot more sense to me why God commands that we insert a day of Sabbath into our week.
I know it’s not always easy to step back from our busy lives and take time off. After all, in today’s society there are countless amounts of things that demand our attention nearly every hour of the day. Many people, including myself, buy into the lie that we constantly need to be plugged in, fearing that we’ll miss out on something big. That’s why my encouragement to you is to drop some of your responsibilities every once in a while, and just enjoy the here and now. God has provided so many wonderful things in this world, and often times I think we’re too “busy” to appreciate them. Here and there, take a minute and slow down. The bible does tell us to, “not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself”, remember?
Speaking of wonderful things, my Sunday ended with some SpikeBall at the beach, accompanied by a pretty dope sunset. We serve an awesome God!
Praying you all have a blessed week. Take some time off, stop and smell the roses, or something like that!
With love,
Steve