First Sabbath day back from our Japan trip and I felt out-of-sync. My rhythm was broken. My typical week starting on Sunday looks something like this.

I tried to practice St. Ignatius of Loyola’s “Examen” which is a five-step daily prayer (memorized by the 5 R’s)

I’ve been practicing taking the Sabbath now for about four months and am starting to understand why the Pharisees might’ve been so legalistic about it; it’s really hard

Tammi, Josh and I practiced Fasting from sunrise to sundown on Thursday. On Tuesday and Wednesday evening/early morning the following day.

This week’s Fasting took place on Thursday and independently from Tammi and Joshua who did their fast on Wednesday and Tuesday, respectively.

This week there was a lot going on in preparation for our impending trip to move Joshua into college. I started my sabbath six hours later than usual.

This week I was in California moving my son Joshua into college. The “resistance” I felt is the break in my routine of sitting in my favorite spot in my backyard.

Remarkably, the resistance to Sabbath, Solitude, Prayer, and Fasting has been less and less as these practices work into my weekly routine.

I felt really tired this week. In times of weariness, I’ve learned to press-in more intentionally to spend time with the LORD.

I was tempted to move my Sabbath day this week to accommodate the Labor Day holiday, to spend more time with Joshua