Dear Cornerstone Family,
I’m still basking in the afterglow of a fabulous Holy Week culminating in one of the most memorable Easters on record. Having sorely missed gathering together the Easter before, you could sense the excitement of being together. My only regret was not getting to speak personally with each and every one of you!
As I write these notes, I’m on a flight headed to Jackson, MS. What am I doing in Jackson, you ask? Well, I’m meeting up with a couple hundred of my closest pastor friends for a couple of days of spiritual encouragement and fellowship.
For years now, I’ve tried to take a few days off after Easter for some rest and refreshment. As spiritually encouraging as Holy Week and Easter are (and they are very encouraging!), I’m always in need of catching my breath when they are over. These few days away—listening to fellow pastors preach the gospel, sharing and praying with dear friends, enjoying late night theological discussions with more than a few laughs—help me catch my second wind.
Speaking of second wind, I’m reminded now of Josef Pieper’s groundbreaking work Leisure: The Basis of Culture. It’s been a decade at least since I first read it, but I still remember him noting that the Latin word for leisure, scola, is the root for the English word school. At the time, I found that puzzling, for we do not think of school as leisure. In fact, we think of it as the opposite of leisure—it’s work! For the ancients, however, work of a certain kind is leisure. To be schooled, for instance, requires one to stop, think, and contemplate reality and its meaning. When we slow down to reflect on life and meaning in a thoughtful way, we’re drawn down the path toward true rest and restoration.
In biblical terms, this is not unlike the purpose of the Christian Sabbath; what we sometimes call The Lord’s Day. On Sundays, Christians gather together to worship—to read the Bible, pray, sing, eat, and fellowship together. From one angle, these activities are work. That is, they require effort. But it is the kind of work that brings about or produces the true and deep rest our souls need. As we worship today, let’s give ourselves to the work of rest!
Your servant,
