Rest

Exodus 20:8-11

It is a wonder how many of the Ten Commandments flow directly from what it takes to live a healthy life. The Fourth Commandment is a case in point—rest is mandated into the covenant between God and humanity. We do not do well when caught in an incessant grind of work and responsibility. We need time to recover, to rest, and to recreate. Otherwise, we start to fall apart. Mind and body break down when overtaxed. We cannot focus on what we need to. We find our relationships strained and sometimes broken completely when we have no time to simply be together. Of course, that is true with our relationship with God, too—without time set aside to do nothing but be in God’s presence, we feel cut off from God, sure God abandoned us somewhere along the way, and our lives begin to wander off course.

So, God commanded—not suggested, not hoped so, but commanded—that one day a week be set aside for nothing but to be with God.

And how are we doing?

A common lament I hear when I talk to families about becoming part of a church community is that there is no time. Either mom or dad (or both) work six out of seven days, the kids are in school and sports that also gobble six days, and Sunday is the one day still more or less sacrosanct, so they do nothing that day, but be together. Getting up, getting ready, and getting to church seems like work and still another responsibility eating up family time and connection. So, church gets dropped.

The truth is that a good many of us run through the week and frankly hit the weekend wanting to do nothing but drop. The idea of having a day on which nothing is allowed but being still in the presence of God, ironically, sounds like one more impingement rather than a pause to refresh.

Well, God understands. 

Does that surprise you? Does that clash with a supposition about God that God really is some further despot wanting control over more than we can possibly offer? 

It shouldn’t. 

God is love. As love, God works and lives in complete compassion for all the creatures, including us, that God made. Being compassionate, God fully understands how sleeping in on Sunday morning, rising to pancakes, and then lolling around with the Sunday funnies before heading for the canal to hike is a perfect day of rest for a household. Remember, one of the times when Jesus reacted furiously to someone near at hand was when the Pharisees invoked Sabbath as a reason to oppress someone or leave someone broken in need of mending. Jesus would have none of it, so we know the Father doesn’t, either. 

However…

That does not negate the need for time to be with God. We need intentional time with God just like we need to eat. Our spirits need that deep connection and feeding that comes only through time for God. God knew that, too. The Sabbath was the pit stop in the rat race. The Sabbath was the time to nourish the deepest parts of our being. It was meant to be a time that offered a taste of what Eden was like before we messed it up. It was meant to be a weekly experience of total redemption when everything about us, about the world, and all else was peaceful with the profound total peace the Hebrews named shalom. 

But how to practice?

Try this…

All of us have down time. We may laughingly say we work 24/7, but the truth is that during the course of our week there is down time, even if it is in the car commuting to and from work. We spend a lot of our time waiting—waiting in line, waiting for the pizza guy, waiting for someone to come home or pick us up—we wait longer than we may realize. Use that time. Pray. If words don’t come, the Lord’s Prayer works great. If that seems like too much, try the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, amen.”). The further truth is that we often wait with someone we love—so turn that time to prayer. Spend time with God with them. It may feel weird at first, but give it time, it will start to feel like a refreshing breeze. The more we become aware of the empty time around us and the more we get used to the practice, we may well find that the Sabbath moments grow into minutes, perhaps hours, and, shoot, there is that whole day with God. 

Always keep in mind that the Ten Commandments are always and actually manifestations of God’s compassion, not God’s abject power and dominion over us. Yes, a lot of them begin with a rather strident “no,” but look at them again—those “no’s” are meant to spare us from undue pain and suffering. They are meant to keep us well. 

So it is, then, with Sabbath. 

It is the full-stop to keep us sane, balanced, and functional. It is meant to awaken us to constant, never-failing presence of God. It is meant to bring us to complete awareness of God breathing through our own breath. To contemplate that, we need to be still—completely still. That is the only way to hear your own breathing. 

Start small, then grow—just like all else we grow into and grow up to be.

Rest.

It’s the law!