The Way of Love: Rest

The scriptures referred to are in the text.

Wild animals never get a day off. Every day they go out and hunt for nuts, berries, plants, fruits, pasture or prey. Occasionally they mate. Then they sleep and do it again the next day. Until they die. And most people throughout most of history have done the same. Humans did set aside special times to stop. But not every week. Except the Jews.

To ancient peoples, one of the unique features of the Jews, besides their believing in only one God, was the practice of the Sabbath, a holy day that occurred every 7 days. They did this because God commanded them to. The fourth of the Ten Commandments says, “Remember the Sabbath day to set it apart as holy. For six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work—you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner in your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11) It is the longest of the Ten Commandments, 55 words in Hebrew. The next longest is the prohibition against making idols, which is 43 words in length. So the Sabbath is very important. And it is tied to the creation account that begins Genesis. “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work he had been doing in creation.” (Genesis 2:3) God stopped working and so should we.

The other ancient peoples thought this was weird. People measured time by the lunar calendar—28 days between full moons—or the solar calendar—365 days to get back to the days being the same length. They of course divided their years into seasons and months. But they didn't have weeks. And while they dedicated certain days annually or seasonally to their gods or to their harvest, why would anyone stop everything every 7 days? And I mean everything: masters, slaves, resident aliens, even animals! That's nuts!

And yet we all need time to rest. Of course, we all sleep. Still, even with adequate sleep, working from sunup to sundown day after day after day wears people out. The same may be true of animals. After all, with the exception of box turtles and giant tortoises, humans live longer than other land animals. Our hearts beat 2 billion times to their 1 billion. Most animals do not make it to the half-century mark and they often end up as someone else's dinner. Our lifespan today is pretty much what it was in Biblical times. If you made it past childhood and adolescence, then as now you could expect to get to 70 or 80 years old. (Psalm 90:10) Even with today's medical knowledge, we can't really crack the uppermost limit set by God in Genesis: 120 years. (Genesis 6:3)

Without a break, we would spend most of our 25,000 or so days of life, working. As it is, with our gig economy and people working numerous jobs, and with retirement becoming a luxury some can't afford, the proportion of our life spent working is increasing. It can seem like a neverending treadmill. Until it does end and we become food for bacteria.

So God commands us to take a whole day off each week to rest. Many of us can remember when all but the most essential businesses were closed on Sunday and the only thing you could do was go to church and spend time with your family. We'd have picnics and cookouts, or go for drives in the country. Parents would send the kids outside to play and retire to the bedroom for naps or other forms of refreshment.

Sunday morning TV was nothing but Meet the Press and public service programming. So we went to church to fill our hearts and minds with something other than the mundane concerns of life. This too goes back to the Bible. In Ezekiel God says, “Treat my Sabbaths as holy and they will be a reminder of our relationship, and then you will know that I am the Lord your God.” (Ezekiel 20:20) We spend the rest of our week engaged in the business of living, of keeping our bodies and those of our family alive and healthy. Yet we rarely take one day to cease (which is what Sabbath means in Hebrew) and take care of our spiritual health. Tending to our spiritual side actually helps us physically. Studies show that weekly worship attendance, besides being linked to reduced rates of suicide, alcoholism and drug use, is also connected with a stronger immune system, decreased stress, increased resilience and greater longevity. Spiritually, spending time communing with a loving and forgiving God can boost hope, provide purpose and meaning in life, and give us inner peace.

Unfortunately, we seem to have less and less time for God. Our 24/7 world has eaten up the Sabbath for many of us. With longer shifts and greater commutes, our weekends are filled with chores and activities we couldn't fit in during the work week. And for a lot of us the work week is not 9 to 5 Monday through Friday anymore. Many businesses are open on Sundays, and many jobs expect you to work any day of the week they assign you. I once lost a secular job when I told them that I could work any time except Sunday mornings. That was a deal-breaker for them and for me. And it wasn't even a nursing job, which of necessity needs continuous coverage for the patients' sake.

One of the reasons we have lost the Sabbath is the worship of Mammon or greed. If a competitor is open Sundays, we better be too, lest we lose business to them. In addition, while some people are willing to work Sundays because they are workaholics, others do so because they are afraid to tell their bosses “No.” Yet if their customers refused to patronize them, they might close Sundays, the way an increasing number of businesses do for Thanksgiving. Although closing one day a year is different from closing one day a week. To today's businessmen that's just weird.

But even the people who do have Sundays off aren't using it to worship or commune with God. Of course some of them were never taken to church as kids and thus never developed the habit. Kids are more likely to go if their parents do. But while 87% of Americans say they believe in God and 43% say religion is very important in their lives, only 31% of Americans go to church every week or almost every week. Which looks like they don't really mean what they say, regardless of what they tell pollsters. God asks for one day and they won't give him one hour. Look at it this way: If you really wanted to learn an instrument or karate or cooking, you would go where they give lessons. Especially if they do not set a price, but only ask for a donation.

And while some people might say that they don't go because resting means doing nothing, that's not true. You just do other stuff: read, watch TV, garden, barbecue, play games. When my ME/CFS flares up, I literally can do nothing. And, believe me, that is not restful at all.

Rest is simply going into another mode. When you sleep your brain doesn't really shut off. The spaces in the brain dilate and the pressure flushes out waste products. During sleep your brain keeps your heart beating and your lungs breathing and your food digesting and your kidneys filtering and your immune system running. Meanwhile, it entertains you with nonsensical movies. Rest is just doing something different than usual. And it is vital to our health.

In God's rest, you are also flushing out the waste products that you've picked up during the week. And while part of God's rest is taking in what is spiritually healthy, part of it is play. Play is the opposite of work. It can be a sport or a hobby or sharing something you and your loved ones enjoy. As Ezra told the people, “Go and eat delicacies and drink sweet drinks and send portions to those who have nothing prepared. For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” And we are told, “So all the people departed to eat and drink and to share their food with others and to enjoy tremendous joy, for they had gained insight in the matters that had been made known to them.” (Nehemiah 8:10, 12) So worship God and then enjoy his gifts. That's why Sundays are not part of the penitential season of Lent. We are to rest but not to grieve. After all, every Sunday is a commemoration of Jesus' resurrection and if that is not a reason to celebrate I don't know what is. The Puritans had it wrong when they banned all fun activities from Sundays and holy days.

A rabbi once said, “The Sabbath is when you regain Eden.” Working by the sweat of our brow was not part of God's Plan A. (Genesis 3:19) We were meant to commune with God everyday. And one day we shall again. We will dwell in God's paradise, where every day will be, as the rabbis said, “a day that is all Sabbath.”

In the meantime we must take advantage of the rest God mandates for us. And avail ourselves of Jesus who said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29)

So have a restful Sunday. Change modes. Flush out the waste of the world. Turn to God. Learn how good he is. Pray to him. Worship him. Then enjoy his gifts. Tomorrow we go out again to share our blessings. And next week we come back here to rest and recharge. That's how we walk the Way of Love.