One of my criticisms about the twenty-first century is that we seem to believe that it is honourable to fill every minute of every day with work. I keep hearing people bragging about how hard they work, and I guess that I am guilty of doing the same myself. If I am being honest, I thrive on having a full diary and love the adrenalin rush as I dash from one task to another. I grew up with the ethos that hard work brings the best results and I guess that throughout my life I have believed that if I invest the maximum amount of effort, I can achieve the very best in life. This is an honourable theory, the problem comes that if we stop, we become overwhelmed with guilt.
The Bible teaches us in its opening verses how God created the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested. That day became known as the Sabbath and there was a time when Jewish law was so strict that people were not permitted to do anything on the Sabbath, a culture that ran for many years. It seems strange today, but I remember as a teenager needing something urgently for my Sunday School lesson one Sunday and sneaking into the paper shop to make my essential purchase, hoping that nobody would spot me and feeling guilty as though I was breaking the law. A man was in the shop with his two young sons, who, seeing the array of sweets in front of them, the boys wanted something, they were told in no uncertain terms by their father that they knew that today was Sunday and they never went shopping on Sunday apart from for essentials and he promptly bought a packet of cigarettes! Which seem a little hypocritical to me.
There is wisdom in God’s plan, because no matter how hard working, we want to believe we are, we all need time to rest, recharge the batteries and equip ourselves for the next stage of the journey. I confess that I find sitting and doing nothing at all incredibly difficult and in the past, I have found it more stressful doing nothing, so find excuses to do bits and pieces of work. One of the advantages of growing old is that God has given me a new gift, the gift of nodding off in my chair. Arriving home from Church yesterday morning, I had a bite of lunch, then sat at my desk and decided to do a bit of writing. The next thing I knew was that I was waking up, with every limb in my body aching a whole three hours later! I wouldn’t recommend sleeping at your desk, while modern office chairs are comfortable for purpose, they are not the ideal bed, and a nice mahogany desk might look wonderful and be practical, but it is no substitute for a pillow.
Rest is essential to our physical and mental wellbeing and whilst there is a culture that suggests that the “couch potato” is not the ideal model for living, there is nothing wrong with us taking time to rest. Time and again in Gospel story we see Jesus taking time out to rest, he worked to a punishing schedule, travelling long distances without the aid of modern transport or roads and rest was as important to him as work. August is the holiday season still for many, make the most of the gift of time to rest and recuperate, and whatever you do, don’t feel guilty about putting your feet up!