Thank you Wilkesboro Baptist for my Sabbatical!

I don’t think I realized how much I needed the rest and reset until several weeks into my time away. Before I left, some of you told me, “You deserve this break.” I appreciate your sentiment, encouragement, and words, but I definitely did not deserve this sabbatical. It was a gift. Thank you elders, personnel committee, staff, deacons, and congregation for letting me take this sabbatical–this season of rest or reset from typical or normal labors. Professors often use sabbaticals to research and write, and I was able to use this sabbatical for reading and writing. (More on this in a future post).

The concept of sabbatical is rooted in the biblical concept of Sabbath. In the coming weeks, I plan to address the idea of Sabbath in sermons and lessons, but the important lesson of the biblical idea of Sabbath is that it is a gift. Consider the first Sabbath. God rested. He created for six days, then modeled rest on day seven. Day seven was actually Adam and Eve’s first full day. Think about it. Adam and Eve’s first full day alive in the garden was a Sabbath day, a rest day, a day of fellowship with God. They didn’t received the Sabbath as a reward for their labors, but rather as a gift from God.

This season of sabbatical has taught me that I need to Sabbath regularly. I must set aside a day of the week to intentionally rest from normal labors. Sabbath is for rest, worship, service, and play (Yes, play. More on this in a future post/sermon). One author suggested that what we should do on Sabbath is what gives life and not what drains life. I think that is why we find Jesus healing on the Sabbath so often in the New Testament. Sabbath rest is a gift from God for our wholeness and our health. I’ve not always done well with setting aside regular labors to rest, worship, and focus on God. For me normal labors would be emails, sermon preparation, planning, vision, leading meetings, etc. Ideally, on my Sabbath, I would rest from these normal labors (and generally rest from my smartphone). This is likely to be for me Friday evening through Saturday evening as my regular labors include preaching on Sunday mornings.

Here are a few Sabbath reminders for us all. First, Sabbath was made for man, not man for Sabbath. Legalism and judging others (as exemplified by the Pharisees in the New Testament) defeat the purpose of Sabbath. Second, Sabbath is an opportunity to worship. Most of us will be able to Sabbath on Sundays as we gather for regular worship and a regular pause in our weekly labors. Third, Sabbath is a gift of rest. Whatever you do or don’t do (activities) on your Sabbath (if you choose to keep one), rest should be a part of your Sabbath. Again, I hope to share more about this in the days to come, but for the moment review Paul’s reminder in Colossians 2:16-19:

16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

Ultimately, fellowship and relationship with Jesus through the gospel is the entry point and the purpose of biblical Sabbath. I don’t share with you these thoughts about Sabbath to create new rules or become legalistic. Rather, I share them because I’ve become convicted regarding my own need to slow down, meet with God, learn to trust him, and rest in him.

I’m deeply grateful for the staff and elders and deacons at WBC during these several weeks. Being able to rest and reset has been good for me, but it has also been good for WBC. Others have led, preached, taught, and served. The church is a body, full of members who love and serve one another. Shared leadership and shared service is good for our building up in Christ. See Ephesians 4.

This season of sabbatical came at just the right time. With my father’s death just as my sabbatical was beginning, I was able to grieve and not drown myself in work. Church family, thank you for letting me care for my father over these past several years, for the many of you that ministered to him and to me, and for your support of me and my family during this season of grief. This time away to grieve, rest, and reset have been good for my soul. To Wilkesboro Baptist, I say thank you.

There were many things I missed during these several weeks. I thought I would miss preaching the most, but actually the thing I missed the most was singing with you all on Sunday mornings. It was such a blessing to be in worship on Sunday February 22 to sing along with the choir, children, praise team, and congregation. What a wonderful and meaningful experience of congregational worship!

For much of the past few weeks, I read, rested, and wrote. Next week, I plan to share a post reflecting on several of the books I read. Thank you for the privilege of be refreshed and filled as I return to the office and my responsibilities as pastor.

Photo by Emmanuel Phaeton on Unsplash

A Tale of Two Deaths

Nearly eight years ago (1/16/2018), my mom died of a massive heart attack. Last night (1/9/2026), my dad died sitting in his recliner at his apartment. In those eight years, my dad grieved, faced depression, moved from Kentucky to Millers Creek, faced surgeries, falls, and a multiple myeloma diagnosis.

My mom’s health journey was long and difficult with many health issues she could not control, but her death was sudden and unexpected. My dad’s health journey has been long and difficult, and his death while sudden was expected. When I left him yesterday afternoon, I didn’t expect it to be last night, but we knew it was on the way.

Death is a horrible enemy. It is relentless. A number of years ago, I preached through Psalm 23. In that most famous psalm, David penned these words, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4). Several things stood out for me as I studied this verse.

First, the Shepherd who leads through green valleys and still waters is still leading through the valley of the shadow of death. In my mom’s sudden death, we saw the Lord leading and showing grace given the many other health challenges she faced. In my dad’s journey these past several years, the Shepherd was leading as well. Even in sorrow and illness, my dad was not alone.

Second, the valley of the shadow of death casts a long shadow. We are trained to think of death as a moment in time when one’s heart stops beating. But the imagery of Psalm 23 indicates that David viewed death as an enemy with tentacles reaching into life to entangle the living. Dad experienced death in this way over the past few years. From depression that began with my mom’s death to the isolation brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, to chronic health issues from life choices to the incurable multiple myeloma diagnosis a couple of years ago, death’s shadow reached my dad long ago. The moment of death was last night, but the moments of death have been many and varied over the past few years.

Third, death is a real enemy but not an ultimate one. David ends the Psalm, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6). David’s testimony reminds us that the believer may die, but lives on forever. Death took my dad last night, but my dad is alive in the presence of the LORD forever. He’s with the LORD, many of his loved ones who have already passed, and with my mom, the love of his life.

My dad’s suffering and death have taught me some things about the goodness and mercy of the LORD. Sometimes stubbornness is a gift to the living. My aunt was talking to me earlier about how my dad got some of his stubbornness honestly from his mom and his grandfather. And boy did he. He was stubborn, strong-willed, and just didn’t listen to much of what I told him these past several years. I’ll never forget him raising his arm, looking at me and the hospice nurses and declaring in that commanding tone I was so familiar with as his son, “I’m ready to die, and I would just as soon die sitting right here in this chair.” My dad’s stubborn will to live and to die in his chair was granted. He lived as long as he did because of his stubborn refusal to give up.

Sometimes God’s goodness and mercy is shrouded in unlikely clothing. There have been many times over the last few years that I struggled to see the goodness and mercy of God in my dad’s circumstances and my responsibility to care for him. My dad struggled with pain, cognitive decline, weakness, and his attitudes reflected these difficulties. As a caregiver, at times I’ve been angry, resentful, frustrated, argumentative, and plain difficult to be around. But even in these challenging days, God’s goodness and mercy chased us.

From his Home Instead caregiver to his deacons at church to church members who brought him meals and doughnuts, God reminded him and me of his goodness and love.

  • God showed his goodness and mercy through my wife’s practical, problem solving advice. In my frustrations and complaints, she was always quick to find and offer solutions. Nearly every major help my dad received traces back to an idea or suggestion she made.
  • God showed his goodness and mercy through cancer nurses and steroids. My dad was always at his best behavior when we went to his cancer infusions at the hospital. I think it was because the cancer nurses coddled him and treated him so well. I’m deeply grateful for the doctors and nurses that helped him battle the cancer and encouraged him along the way. Dad, my siblings, and I made the decision to stop his cancer treatments last spring due to weakness, loss of appetite, and other side effects. At that time, none of us thought he would make it through the summer much less the rest of 2025. But a steroid and moving off of cancer medications restored his appetite and gave him several months of quality living.
  • God showed his goodness and mercy through hospice care. I’m thankful for Mountain Valley Hospice who provided guidance for this season of my dad’s life.
  • God showed his goodness and mercy through many friends, prayers, encouragements, and moments even when I had trouble seeing it.
  • God showed his goodness and mercy through a family in our church who showed up at my dad’s apartment to sing Christmas carols. They sent me a video of him listening and even singing along.

My dad and mom are no longer with us. I deeply miss my mom’s prayers and even the stories she would tell over and over again. I miss my dad always asking about my sons even when his memory wasn’t great. I even miss his ornery orders that he would give me nearly every time I went to care for him. From now on, January will always be the month of two deaths. The tales of my parent’s deaths are much like the stories of so many friends, family, and church members that I’ve gotten to know. But their tales don’t end in January 2018 and 2026. For the death that our LORD died some 2,000 years ago means that my parents are more alive now than ever before. The death that our LORD died means that however I go through the valley one day in the future, I know that I will live forever in the presence of the LORD.

Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash