Never thought I’d quote a line from the 1939 Gene Autry song, but “I’m back in the saddle again!” After much of the summer spent in sabbatical rest, it feels great to be back at the helm of Prepare International!
Many have asked me about the idea of a sabbatical. Sabbatical comes from the word Sabbath, and it’s the idea of taking a prolonged season of rest after an extended season of intense work. In Israel, even the land was supposed to have sabbatical after several seasons of hard production.
After 20 years of intense travel (sometimes up to 150 days per year), it was a much needed time. I wish I could say that I have returned wholly rested and fully refreshed but that is not quite the case. I did find rest. I did find times of refreshing and have returned ‘healthier’ than when I left, but the greatest benefit was being quiet enough to ‘see’ myself. It was a fantastic and terrible time of self-discovery. As I slowed down, I began to see deep areas of fear and my frenetic pace had masked anxiety within that. On top of this, Jesus began to uncover values in me that are in no way aligned with Him or His Kingdom ways. It has been a season of wonderful repentance and a step in the direction of a soul more completely set free, and for this, I will ever be grateful!
Sabbatical or a sabbatical (from Hebrew: shabbat, in Latin: sabbaticus, in Greek: sabbatikos, literally a “ceasing”) is a rest from work, or a break, often lasting from one month to a year. The concept of sabbatical has a source in shmita, described in several places in the Bible. For example, in Leviticus 25, there is a commandment to desist from working the fields during the seventh year.
– Randy Boyd
