Sabbath Rest is Good

Rick has been teaching and talking quite a bit about the sabbath - in particular the "rest" clause. The "Keep it holy" clause is a bit meatier, I think, but also more difficult. I don't think you can get to the holy part without the rest part, so I, too, have been thinking on this quite a bit.

I often joke that my next job is going to be "independently wealthy" but I'm just not sure my resume supports it and I haven't found anyone who is hiring. The truth behind the joke is that we all want the freedom to do more of what we'd like to do and be able to rest from the workaday life we must live if we are to pay the bills and care for our families. I can't seem to fit everything that I would like to do into a 24 hour period - and that includes sleep.

It's a vicious cycle and it seems that my choices become leaving some things behind (which I find myself doing more and more), doing little bits of lots of things (leaving much unfinished) or even doing nothing at all (paralyzed by the tug between the former two options.) That doesn't even include all the things I "have" to do - go to work, take care of my son, cook, clean, etc. (much of which is graciously shared by my wife.) So what's a person to do? The Biblical mandate, for at least one day a week, is...do nothing.

This is one of those joyous paradoxes of the Bible, an almost zen* approach that turns weakness into strength, poverty into abundance and emptiness into fullness. It is when Rick said that everything that God has for me can't be contained in this life that a lightbulb turned on and turned on brightly. I can't ever finish everything I want to get done. There just isn't time. Not in a day, not in a week, not in a lifetime. God designed it that way! He rested after 6 days, not because He was done working, but because rest was good. God could take time to witness His creation, call it "very good" and bless a day of rest, both for Himself and for us.

After several generations, God had to codify this day of rest in the decalogue, because Israel had become enslaved and were so used to working all day every day that a law had to be put in place to make them stop! This should sound somewhat familiar. Have WE not become slaves, working and doing all the time? We try to cram in too much in too little time, thinking that our lives will be less complete if we don't do x and see y. Again, it turns out the opposite is true. Instead of our lives getting fuller with more activities, they get weaker. We feel as Bilbo Baggins says like "too little butter spread over toast." Instead of concentrated, we are diluted - thinned beyond effectiveness, tired beyond ability.

By now, I assume you are convinced that rest may be a good idea. But good ideas are just that if not paired with action - and this is the hard part. How do we achieve sabbath rest? I'm still working that out myself, but for me, it means letting go. I need to have time where I don't worry about what needs to get done or all the things I want to get done. It means choosing to do fewer things and conserving my energy for what is important. It means leaving time on the weekend with just my family, or even just myself. Finally, it means being content with being unfinished. This doesn't mean neglecting things that I need or want to get done, but that those things don't rule - God does.

In the end, sabbath is an exercise of sacrifice. We sacrifice work or even play for the sake of resting. We recognize that it is God who is in control, it is God who ultimately accomplishes His tasks and it isn't too much to set aside one day to thank and acknowledge Him for that. Does not God the Father know what we want and need even before we ask? Our sabbath sacrifice gives us the opportunity to not only ask, but to clear out the noise and hear the response.

That is the theory anyway. What I need is practice. Today is a good time to start, and this weekend even more so. I'll let you know how it goes.

*As an aside, I often think the zen Buddhists have learned something that we Western Christians lack. I'm speaking more in terms of mindset and higher-level philosophy rather than religious tenets. There are some very good ideas to be found in unexpected places.