December is my Sabbath Month

December is my Sabbath month. Every year, I reserve December for a sabbatical rest from my hectic life. I know many of my friends think I am crazy to do so many things at one time. I am used to multitasking, one useful skill I picked up early in my medical and pastoral career. Personally, I feel that being bivocational is more demanding on a person. A Sabbath month is different from a sabbatical. I still continue to practice paediatrics and serve in ministry but I have planned to reduce my engagements to a minimal. For me December is a time for rest and refreshing in the Lord, reflection on the year past and the year to come, and to do some forward planning.

In December, I normally ask myself three questions:

(1) How have I loved and did I love well?
In this, I do not look at the things I have done this year; how many sermons or lectures I have given, how many retreats I have led, how many articles or books have I written or people helped in my medical practice. Basically these activities are incidental. I can tally them up and make an impressive curriculum vitae (CV). What I want to know is how have I loved God and other persons through these activities? And have I loved well? Do people perceive my love to be genuine?

(2) Where am I on my journey?
I shall be looking for spiritual and physical marker stones (Ebenezer) in this year. Where am I in my journey with God? Am I bearing the fruit of the Spirit? Am I being gentler with others and with myself? Am I growing old gracefully or am I getting grumpier in my old age? Am I helping others on their journeys too?

(3) How am I with God?
Have I grown closer to my Beloved or have I grown further apart? Have my activities done in His name distanced myself from Him? Have I learned more about my Lord? Do I appreciate Him for Himself as He has revealed to me or am I too engrossed with His gifts? Am I comfortable to being and resting in Him?

I am looking forward to my December Sabbath. Please pray for me as I enter it. Soli Deo Gloria.

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