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
Stephen,
David Krukow here from Iowa. I used to be at Bennezette W. and now am attending a church in Hampton that is way behind in understanding what we have grown up with in the Wesleyan doctrine about resting one day per 7. The more I read His word and accept His blessings as I learn to know how to please Him the more I realize the Wesleyans have it correct. Not all churches teach this and lean more toward pleasing itching ears.
I had a chance to give a fill-in sermon and I did it on tithing setting aside one tenth and setting aside one day out of seven for our Lord. I am a farmer and I found out that I was the only one that did not plant and harvest on Sunday if the weather was nice on those days. The last few years Sunday did seem to be about the day the fields were dry enough to work. Anyway, the message I gave did not set well at all with this group and since then I have not been encouraged to fill-in or teach since. Jesus eating the grains of wheat as they were walking along ok’s harvesting on Sunday they would say. My point was and still is that there are blessings for us if we follow God on not working. God set the example on day 7 of creation and this was before the 10 commands. It is us allowing God to show us that he has us covered in our needs as we obey him. It is a rest from the curse he gave us as well. We were cursed to hard work by the sweat of our brow but not on the 7th day. We are to worship God on that day and not work! Some folks do not believe in the rapture like we do but they still do not teach how not to take the mark of the beast. Those who take the mark cannot buy or sell and they must worship the beast before they take it. Well, folks working on Sunday think their pocket book is more important than worship of God. They have already demonstrated that they most likely will be taking the mark. Also, think of the times when God has shown his provision for this day. Israel was wondering in the desert and all the rest of the days the manna rotted except what was picked up on the sixth day. More on preservation later. Nehemiah 13:15-22 tells of how he threatened to lay hands on them if they did not stop working. Later he was going to pull out their hair if they did not stop another trespass. We may not know how God blesses us all the time for pleasing him as he may preserve our goods. Israels clothes did not wear out in the desert for 40 years! The widow gave Elijah her last meal and then the oil and flour did not run out for a very long time. Also consider how the Jesus fed the 4 and 5,000. It is God who gave us our jobs and he placed us farmers as caretakers over his land and so why would we think that farming is more important than worshiping Him and resting than staying home to work? God will back us up when we make a stand and profess his will to not work on his day. Just two weeks ago a fellow in church was actually thinking I should maybe be out farming like all of the rest of the farmers in church. I told him the above reasons. Anyway, that very day Farm Service was working and the workers were dead tired and by mistake they applied NH3 in my field instead of the intended field. Free fertilizer!
Another example of God backing me up was when my custom silage chopping crew was at my farm and they said, “We know that you don’t want us out there
on Sunday in your field (Do not work on the Sab. nor your hired workers) and we have so much to do that we are going to take our equipment over to your neighbors farm and work Sun. and then we will be back Mon. ” I told them not to do it because one of my dad’s sayings was, “Work on Sunday broke down on Monday”. I said come with me to church and take a rest. Well, they did not listen.
Monday came and two weeks went by before they showed up again. They said you would not believe what happened. The huge drive shaft that goes between the engine and the transmission broke in half on the chopper. I said I told you not to do it. They said you jingsted us! It is only an illusion that working on S. brings more money or gets us ahead. It is a proven fact from studies at factories that more production is obtained by giving the workers one day off. Other good verses relating are: Heb. 13:5 keep from the love of money. Math. 6:19-21 Do not store up … I Tim. 6:7 Food clothing content. This commission we have here on earth is not to get money. If it were so Jesus who knows everything would show us where all of the gold is buried. He would tell us which stocks to invest in and all of the good real estate deals, the sunken treasures, the corn market movements, etc. Math. 17:27 example of getting the coin out of fishes mouth to pay the tax shows that he knows where the gold is! That is not our goal! Working on Sunday goes against all of those thoughts on getting more money. Mark 12:41-44 tells us that Jesus is watching us and he knows how much we have (widow’s mite) . Math. 10:42 tells that even giving a cup of cold water will not lose a reward! As you say there is a 1,000 year rest coming after the 6,000 years of work under the curse. Resting on Sunday is a reminder that he loves us in this curse and our rest is coming! I think we may only work 1 day per week then and there will be vast wealth produced because of the preservation of things, no corruption, and no curse. Oh, and there is more from my notes on the tithing part relating to preservation. Mal. 3:6-12 tells what God will do if we tithe. V. 10 says test me in this! V. 11 says I will prevent pests from devouring your crops! Well, we farmers know how many kinds of pests there are to eat on the crop. Would we know about it if they were not there to start with and credit God? I think most farmers might not. Can we relate the test me in this to the setting aside of one day? I think we can. I am sort of using you as a sounding board to vent some frustration now. In our adult S.S. class folks have admitted to not knowing very much about the bible and so instead of working on that our church is in the habit of following the school system of having no school during the summer to rest. Is that what your church does? No S.S. for the whole summer? So, in conclusion it is very refreshing to read you are having this series which is so rich in history and truth and love for us by God all tying together from day 6 until the end of the groaning of creation and the curse as God shows us what he intended for us and this earth for one thousand years!
Until another day,
David