This week I'm composing a message about the Fourth Commandment, which is the command to stop work for one day every week.Given that most people get two days off each week, that might seem like a needless command, but I wonder. Most of us admit to being to busy to "really live." If our careers are not demanding too much of our time and energy, the yard, the kids, the softball league or something else quickly fills in the extra room.
We very seldom truly stop, which is what the Hebrew word behind sabbath really means. Our culture drives us to greater productivity as a source of esteem, and we seem to have confused relaxing with consuming. Perhaps we're afraid of feeling useless? Maybe we fear the silence?
Either way, I'm convinced that we need more room in our lives, both for physical and psychological well being and to center ourselves as people of God. But I confess that I'm the chief among sinners on this one. I've decided to get over feeling like a hypocrite (as well as being one) and deal with the subject.
Here are my initial questions, after reading a couple of scriptures including Deut. 5:12-15 and Mark 2:23-38.
Do you feel that you are too busy?
What makes people so resistant to the idea of doing nothing for a day?
Is there a difference between a sabbath and a day off?
Do you observe the sabbath? How? When?
Is it reasonable for people in our culture to be out of touch for 24 hours?
Help me out, team? How can we apply this commandment to life in the wired world?
1 comments:
For me, the subject of Sabbath has an odd connection to the Harry Chapin song "Cats In The Cradle" where the narrator asks "when you coming home, son?" and receives a vague "I don't know when, but we'll get together then." And "then" never happens and busy replaces the time and place that relationship should have.
In Acts 17:28 we are told "for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'"
A Sabbath is simply God's way of asking us when we are going to come home for a REAL visit.
We are resistant to taking Sabbaths because we have been fed mixed messages. Somehow busy makes us more righteous as "an idle mind is the devil's playground." When the truth is we are told "be still and know that I am God."
A day off is different from a Sabbath. A day off is GIVEN to us in order for us to leave one work behind for another. A Sabbath is something we give to ourselves to consciously focus on God at work in our lives.
Observing the Sabbath doesn't mean we have to shut ourselves off for 24 hours from the outside world. After all even Jesus addressed the issue of taking care of necessary business when he corrects the Pharisees about how even they would get their ox or donkey out of a ditch on a Sabbath. For us, if we need to cook a meal, give kids a bath or wash a load of laundry - are we really breaking sabbath or can we still engage in heartfelt dialogue with and about God in those moments?
As all, it comes down to our relationship with God. Sabbath is about us actively seeking God, coming home and getting together with him.
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