Time To Rest

Ever since turning 50, I’ve been working on creating a lifestyle and habits that will make life even better than it has been.

One of those changes is that I have started observing a day of rest.

God wants us to rest, He knows we need it.  “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.”  He is very serious about it:  “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.”  Exodus 23:12 and 34:21.

It didn’t take long until people nit-picked it to death…added to it… gave it their own interpretation… until it was unrecognizable.

Then Jesus came.  He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:11,12)

And because we humans can be a bit dense,  He also has told us: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  (Mark 2:27)

And so I have started observing a Sabbath rest…a true rest for body, mind, and soul.  In Colossians Paul tells us not to be bound up by rules but to observe the Lord’s rest in freedom.  I have picked Sunday to be my day of rest.  But if there is something major going on, I can rest on another day.

I start my day by heading over to church.  Sometimes we will go out for lunch with our Sunday school class or sometimes we come home.  Once we are home I don’t ‘work’ on Sundays.  No cleaning, no paperwork, no laundry.  But I can, if I chose, engage in a relaxing hobby or read a book.  I’ll write my sponsor kids; encouraging them.  I’ll work on something for a dear missionary family I’m getting to know. 

And I usually take a nap.

I noticed a change immediately.  I became more focused thru the week, less stressed.  I’ve gotten more done in less time.  I feel more peaceful.

Guess that is why He wants us to rest…