sabbatical
Yesterday morning at shift change, one of the night nurses was telling me how she was so tired, because it had been a long night (literally, since she stayed an extra hour or so finishing up charting), but that she needed to go to church or else her mother would yell at her. I was missing church, too, and so I shared with her how I consoled myself: "How can being here be bad? Didn't you know Jesus healed on the Sabbath?" At this point, the nice eavesdropping doctors sitting next to me laughed, so I know I made an impression, but I don't know if I made my point.
It's a tricky situation, really. I've been told that if you go to church every week, you will never become inactive. That's a rather tongue-in-cheek adage, because if you attend services every week, I'm pretty sure that means you are not inactive as a member of your church, because you are there. It's like saying that you always find something the last place you look. Well, duh.
Except there's a little more depth to this one. I could be going to church every week (which I'm not, as I've established) but neglect the daily things for the rest of the week--things like being kind, praying, reading inspirational words, helping others, etc.--and that really falls short of true religious activity. I think that was Christ's point to the Pharisees. True religion is NOT a sabbatical; it is not something you do on the seventh day of the week and neglect the other six days. Wouldn't religious leaders everywhere prefer that we are living our religion, not just attending our religion? And given the choice, wouldn't they prefer that we heal, or save lives, or do good, on the Sabbath day, rather than sit and learn about these things?
Of course, they (and I) would also like me to be in church, because that is a building dedicated to Love and Learning. But on those weekends where I have to work, I find that being in the hospital is not a wholly bad trade.
It's a tricky situation, really. I've been told that if you go to church every week, you will never become inactive. That's a rather tongue-in-cheek adage, because if you attend services every week, I'm pretty sure that means you are not inactive as a member of your church, because you are there. It's like saying that you always find something the last place you look. Well, duh.
Except there's a little more depth to this one. I could be going to church every week (which I'm not, as I've established) but neglect the daily things for the rest of the week--things like being kind, praying, reading inspirational words, helping others, etc.--and that really falls short of true religious activity. I think that was Christ's point to the Pharisees. True religion is NOT a sabbatical; it is not something you do on the seventh day of the week and neglect the other six days. Wouldn't religious leaders everywhere prefer that we are living our religion, not just attending our religion? And given the choice, wouldn't they prefer that we heal, or save lives, or do good, on the Sabbath day, rather than sit and learn about these things?
Of course, they (and I) would also like me to be in church, because that is a building dedicated to Love and Learning. But on those weekends where I have to work, I find that being in the hospital is not a wholly bad trade.
Comments
Post a Comment