"If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
God's holy day as a celebration,
If you honour it by refusing 'business as usual,'
making money, running here and there—
Then you'll be free to enjoy God!”
Isaiah 58:14
Getting to the airport on time can be a nerve-racking affair.
The traffic can catch you out, or the parking can be chock-and-a-block and you may have to drive around and around and up and up until you're miles away from Departures.
However, if you are lucky enough to lay claim to the last green light in the parking lot, you may not remember where you’ve stashed your parking ticket, and what if it fell out when you got out and is now lying next to the car where it surely won't be when you get back?!
Should you finally get into the airport building and bravely stand in the long line with your boarding pass, ready to go through Security, you may suddenly not be able to find your ID and may have to run back to the check-in counter where they will show you that it is peeking at them from your breast pocket.
Back to queuing, and after you've unpacked and declared all your electronics and no machines went off around you, you’d finally be free to walk on and wait for your turn to fly wherever you want.
One of the small delights for ordinary people is when you get to take the elevator to the top floor on this side of things and check in at the S-L-O-W Lounge.
What is the S-L-O-W Lounge, I hear you ask?
Some banking institutions offer some of their customers the privilege to wait at this rest-cum-dining place to relax and fill your insides for 90 minutes before your departure, all completely free and already paid.
You are warmly welcomed here, and upon entering, the soft, drop-in sofas in front of the giant glass windows beckon you closer. As you splash down there, with all your immediate worldly possessions around you, you can finally exhale.
For the next 90 minutes this is an oasis.
First, something to drink.
Free.
Then, something to eat - especially if there was no time left before you had to rush to the airport!
Free.
Then just a little something sweet with a coffee or green tea or whatever floats your boat...
Free.
And you help yourself.
And the buffet remains open
and the well keeps pouring
and you catch yourself at the wall of books luring you with that one you've always wanted to check out,
while every little electronic thingy is plugged in for final battery charge before you take to the skies.
If you want to make it extra special, you may take them up- on a 20-minute massage to dispel all the stresses of the last few hours.
Also free.
And you enjoy every moment.
And you feel special.
Sunday is supposed to be the Lord's S-L-O-W Lounge.
On Sunday, I'm not supposed to chase more business or chase more followers or chase more stuff.
Because on Sundays I have the privilege of enjoying what the Lord has already paid for me.
I should feel welcome in the house of the Lord.
I should know that I can eat and drink from what He serves me there with the quiet knowledge that I don't have to do anything to pay for it.
On Sundays, I should plug myself into what can properly charge me for the week, not just the short boosts that only temporarily take my battery out of the red.
I should feel my whole being relax and my whole body breathe more freely on this one day that the Lord has given me pertinently to find rest, before I once again take on the world and all its journeys.
In the Lord's S-L-O-W Lounge I can enjoy the Lord shamelessly and in peace every Sunday as if nothing else exists.
And I don't even need a special account for this.
My faith in Jesus pays my entrance.
"Welcome to the S-L-O-W Lounge."
Your inspiration for the week: Psalm 91
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