I think it could be fun to run a marathon. Thousands of people do it every year. How hard could it really be? I have a few hours of free time to spare this evening. Why not? With such words, I charge out the door of my house. By the time I reach the end of my driveway, I begin to wonder if I shouldn’t have had a drink of water before I left. By the time I pass my neighbor’s driveway my lungs are making unnatural sounds. When I come to the next driveway there are shots of pain raging through my body, like trolls chasing me with little knives, gleefully plunging them into my muscles. A few more feet and it all goes black, I am sure I have come to death’s doorway, I collapse in a heap as a distant pack of wolves howls with delight. The weak one has been chosen from the heard. They will eat well tonight.
Few of us would actually attempt to run a marathon on just a whim, yet it is with just such enthusiasm we live our lives. Running a marathon takes months and even years of training and preparation. It takes changes in lifestyle and priorities. No one tries to run a marathon and succeeds. One has to train for a marathon. Daily though, many of us try to run the marathon of life without training and the results are good for the wolves and bad for us.
Last week we introduced the first three reasons why we need to take a Sabbath break. We need rest from being hurt, from heavy labors, and the pace of the world. These come from Matthew Sleeth’s book 24/6. If you missed the post you may read it here. This week is the second installment in our series.
We Need Rest from the Speed of Change
One of the greatest challenges colleges face today is they are training students for jobs that don’t yet exist requiring skills that are not yet known. The regular practice of Sabbath reminds us that there are some things that never change.
Jesus gives us a powerful example of the stabilizing force of routine and ritual in our lives. On the night when Jesus knows he is about to be betrayed and arrested Jesus knows that the disciples’ whole world is about to be turned on its head. What they thought they knew and understood about him, their lives and the future will be shattered. Change is coming. So, Jesus brings his disciples to the Passover meal. The central festival and meal for every Jewish person practiced faithfully from their days as young children to this day. Luke records in his Gospel “When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer'” (22:14-15, NIV).
The regular ritual of Sabbath (and other spiritual practices as well) are acts of training for when the marathon of life changes the rules and calls us to run.
We Need Rest from the Job
Changing jobs has become the rule rather than the exception in life. In our ever increasing gig economy, some find they are changing jobs every few months. As Matthew Sleeth says, “Resting is even more necessary in uncertain times. It helps us to remember that God is in control and that our identity is not dependent on the work that we do” (81). Stopping from the struggle and striving of work is an act of faith. It is trusting that God will provide. Jesus says:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life” (Matthew 6:25-27, NIV)
When we stop our work to rest in God it is an intentional act of choosing not to worry.
We Need Rest from Information
It has been said that the typical U.S. high school graduate knows more about science, mathematics, sociology, and politics than Thomas Jefferson. Our phones feed us continuous streams of information. We go to the gym to get away and twelve screens blast the day’s news and gossip while headphones in our ears feed even more data. We need to rest from the flood. We need time to process, to ponder and organize what it coming in. “Uninterrupted time allows us to separate what’s important from what’s merely urgent” (Sleeth 82).
Ponder for yourself. What do you need rest from? Did one of these six stands out to you? Or maybe there is another area you need rest in, if you comfortable please share in the comments.
Blessings,
Stephen