Exodus 21-40: Sabbath

   Everyone needs a little rest. According to the Bible, 1/7 of our waking time should be restful.

   The Sabbath is something that has been on my mind a lot this week. I heard a sermon once about how the Sabbath is . . . well, a real thing. It's a Biblical directive that we should allot time for resting. Just like we should honor our father and mother and not murder people and have no other gods or idols. I think it's interesting how we ascribe so much importance to the 10 commandments . . . and then kind of ignore that whole Sabbath thing. Or maybe I'm wrong in thinking a lot of other people besides myself don't consider that commandment as being of equal importance to the rest. 

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   Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all of your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. Exodus 20:8-11

   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. Exodus 23:10-12 

   You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy. Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you.  Exodus 31:13-17

   The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27

   There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest. Hebrews 4:9-11
           

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   My thoughts on the meaning of the Sabbath: It doesn't have to be Sunday; I think the importance is an exchange of 6 days work for 1 day rest. What constitutes "work" and "rest" is probably different for everyone; resting doesn't have to mean sitting in a chair and staring at the wall all day . . . but I guess maybe it could for some people. Keeping the Sabbath "holy" seems to mean that worship or some kind of intimate time spent with the Lord is involved. 

   These are the problems I have with it:

A. I don't get enough stuff done in the other 6 days of the week, so the 7th day is for overflow.

1. What am I saying? That the world just ends if I don't do all of these things I feel like I have to do? That my influence and impact in those things is that important? Thinking through it makes me feel a little arrogant and a lot that I'm just kind of forgetting that God runs the show. Clearly he thinks 6 days of work is sufficient, so why am I trying to say otherwise? 
2. Why am I not getting enough done in those first 6 days? Am I not managing my time well? Am I wasting time with frivolous or pointless things? Do I have too much on my plate? Am I over committed and overextended? Are my priorities in line? Doing a lot of stuff or trying to be super-wife or super-achiever is cool, but realistically I have a finite amount of resources and time. 

B. What do I even find restful?

• Okay, that sounds weird. But I've been noticing that things I thought were relaxing aren't doing it for me anymore, if they ever did in the first place. 
• I spend all week in go-mode, and then I don't know how to stop or I feel weird stopping. OR I spend all week resenting go-mode and end up having empty days - no work, no rest. It's kind of dumb, isn't it? I want to rest, so I stop working but don't rest? I mean, come on Court, really? 
• I anticipate the next day or even the next week a lot. So I spend my free day thinking and planning and analyzing and scheduling. That is not restful. 

   So . . . what am I going to do about this?

   I don't know.


   Step 1: Get my husband on board. It's helpful to have an accountability buddy in stuff like this. Also, it would probably be good for him to expect that I won't be doing much on Saturdays (my Sabbath day). 
   Step 2: Try not to do any work on Saturday if at all possible. Clean and study and run errands and write serious things and all that kind of stuff on the first 6 days. In the future, avoid making commitments that require me to do things I consider "work" 7 days a week. 
   Step 3: Experiment with things that seem potentially restful.
   Step 4: Prayerfully adjust. In fact, prayerfully do the previous three steps because I have no idea what I'm doing here. 

   
   Thoughts? Suggestions? 

~ Court