We have seen this week that Sabbath rest is something given by God at creation, and remains part of his continuing commands to Israel to celebrate their freedom in him.
Over time, however, the Sabbath became much more than what God had simply commanded – as people developed many more regulations defining what entailed work or rest. Surely their intentions were good, to maintain a healthy respect for God’s laws, but these regulations were able to eclipse the purpose and personality behind the law.
We’ll see next week how Jesus dealt with these regulations. This has major implications for Christians…as people have long sought to understand how Sabbath laws apply after Jesus. Should Christians rest on Saturday, Sunday, or simply a day a week? Can certain kinds of jobs be done on the day of rest? Can I cut the grass? Can I shop, even though it means someone else works? These are common questions, but even if we disagree, the basic premise remains – God has a rhythm to life, it’s his rhythm, and it’s meant for us as well.
But how many of us have honestly tried it, instead of simply arguing about it?
Our rhythm is usually not one day of rest every six, but comes in weeks – we work, work, work and then rest hard. This is why so many people get sick on vacation! Or we can work, work, work for decades, then retire and finally rest. There is a window of time after retirement that many men are known to get heart attacks, due to the major shock to their systems and lifestyles. The message in this way of life is that we are slaves to work, and can run away once in a while. Or earn our emancipation at retirement. This isn’t what we were made for.
We’ll see next week that our emancipation from slavery has been bought by someone else – we are not slaves to this world’s economy.
Challenge: Try and take a day of complete rest this week. Not your usual creative work (Tuesday) but either put your feet up, or do other kinds of work/play.
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It can be very hard to find rest in our world. Between a Blackberry, kids, the home phone and social media, it can be hard to focus on anything, much less rest.
One study found that people who are interrupted by technology score 20 percent lower on a standard cognition test. A second demonstrated that some students, even when on their best behavior, can't concentrate on homework for more than two minutes without distracting themselves by using social media or writing an email.
We always wonder what we’re missing, what we should be doing, even when we’re supposed to be resting. With technology, we don’t have to suppress that – we can always know, we can always be available.
People say it’s harder and harder to unplug.
Even as I wrote this, I found myself turning to all kinds of distractions – it’s always when I try to focus on writing that I decide some amazing new change needs to be made to the app or social media. This makes it hard to work and rest – I’m constantly blending the two, and doing neither well as a result.
For this year’s vacation, I committed to turning my smartphone off, and only checking in once a day to make sure things are running smoothly with Redeem the Commute. I’ll have to physically make sure my phone isn’t around, because I know I’ll be tempted otherwise.
But that isn’t a foolproof formula – I can always go get my smartphone if I get too curious. Find rest can’t just be about strategies – because our problem is inside us. There is something inside me that is still wanting to check email, check the news, etc.
We’ll explore what that is, and what to replace it with this week.
Question: How do you “unplug” and rest? What strategies do you use?
Just in time for summer's blend of work and rest, Redeem the Commute is starting a new series of daily challenges to help busy people restore life to the commuting lifestyle. This seven week series will look at the meaning and purpose of work, rest, and ancient practices that have helped followers of Jesus to keep the two in perspective and balance for centuries.
