"For myself, I would see the White Tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace: Minas Anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen among other queens; not as a mistress of many slaves, nay, not even a kind mistress of willing slaves. War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor, and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise."

-Faramir, The Two Towers. J.R.R. Tolkien.

This quote is what came to mind in response to hearing this talk on Biblical manhood.
(The website from which the audio came can be found here.)
(The sound is a little choppy, for that blame the sound guy. Which was me. So I won't be offended.)

What of the seventh day?

This week I decided that I would try to have this weekend free from homework, so that way I could focus on other things, including but most certainly not limited to watching the Super Bowl and catching up on Community. It was born mostly out of being a spiritual exercise. Taking the commandment to heart and seeing what happened.

It happened, too. It was sort of amazing just to have the homework out of the way, for one thing. But then the interesting thing was how strange it was to not be hurrying around trying to finish something. Normally there is always some assignment that I have to be working on-filling my mind with a pressing goal.

It was not only strange to not have something to be working on but it was strange because I wanted to pick up something else to do. I wanted to do the schoolwork that I had committed to myself to not do. I felt sort of lost.

It gave for more time for prayer and introspection than I have had for a good while, which is good but also challenging. Is that maybe why in the Old Testament there were problems with Sabbath violations? I do not think I could give a good argument for those times but here is one question I have left for myself:

Would I rather be trying to get stuff done all the time rather than be left alone with God?