Snatch of Breath

By Bryan John F. Mallari

Spring 2021

Before I begin to report my sabbath rest, I would like to thank Pastor Harry Walls, our team coach, for giving us a restful, rejuvenating, and refueling three hours exam. This class (Practice of Pastoral Ministry) is perhaps one of the most enjoyable ones for me, and so again, thank you, Coach!

God has given us time to rest. Rest is an instance or a period of relaxing or ceasing to engage in a strenuous or stressful activity. My way to unwind from the busyness of seminary work is to be with my family because when I am with them, I am “home.” When I am on a break from my seminary work, it is a resting point for me when I tune out from it and tune in with my wife and kids. However, this sabbath rest as the final exam is so unique -- somehow a sneak-out moment, and it is a snatch of breath, like a pre-tribulation-pre-millennial rapture!

On that Sabbath rest day, my wife and I got our first Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 at a pharmacy near our place. Then we took the children onto a short road trip on our way to the carwash station. Our kids, at their very young age, love to go for a car ride. When I am away, staying home is the norm for them doing homeschool with their mom. But when daddy is home, they look forward to Dad taking them to the park. And that Sabbath rest, we went to this lovely neighborhood park in Stockton, the S.L. Fong Park.

I have reflected that amidst the stress in my seminary period, God promises peace to His people and to me amazingly. God gives peace to those minds who are fixed on Him. And on that note, it was quality time with the kids and my wife, Rachelle. Psalm 85:8 says, “For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones.” The passage idea is that despite the present distress, Korah’s sons’ confidence in the Lord’s loving character causes them to anticipate that the Lord will speak well-being to His people. As my kids wait the day we go to the park, and I waiting to bond with them and also with Rachelle, it is a moment of “shalom,” of completeness, of safe and security, a state of “I am okay now.” I am refreshed, with all honesty, when I am with my family, especially when we all come together, worshipping together in our family devotion night.

Isaiah 26:3-4 says, “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, For in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock.”