Worship - Sabbath

     When most people think of "The Sabbath" they think of Sunday.  You go to church, you have lunch with some friends, then you spend the afternoon either napping or watching football.  The world's view of the Sabbath has become skewed and misinterpreted over the years.  The fourth commandment reads:

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work" (exodus 20:8-10)

     The original Jewish understanding of the Sabbath centered around 24 hours of setting aside the work of their lives.  They literally put aside anything and everything and rested.  They would meet together with their families, light lamps, and just enjoy a time of prayer, food, and fellowship with God.  "They woke on sabbath morning to a world they didn't make and a friendship with God they didn't earn." (Spiritual Disciplines Handbook).  But over time, this fellowship with God began to transform into just a ritual with sets of rules that must be kept.  It turned from a time of rest and transformation into almost another kind of work in that it was stressful to keep all the regulations of the sabbath day.

     I know that I have a lot of trouble just slowing down and spending time with God.  There were times during the school year that I would wake up at 6:30, then go to school until 3, then track practice till 5, then work till 9...then do homework till 11.  Then I would go to bed and start all over again.  The sabbath is a time where I can realize that I am finite; I can't go on forever.  I tire, I get weary; but God doesn't.  It is a time where I can thank God for all the work he has done and will do in the future.  He never gets weary of our burdens or our struggles.  "Sabbath is God's way of saying 'Stop. Notice your limits. Don't burn out.'" (Spiritual Disciplines Handbook).

     I know that many have fallen into this sense of Sunday being a day where you can't work, and you must rest all day.  But that's not really what the Sabbath is all about.  It isn't a specific day of the week, or even a specific time of the day.  I know that some people have to work on Sundays.  Are pastor's sinning when they work on Sundays?  Definitely not.  But they take a day off work during the week for their Sabbath.  In my dad's case, he takes Friday's off from going into the church so that he can enjoy his Sabbath.  Every Friday night, we would go out to dinner together and enjoy a family time of rest from a long week of work and school.  So maybe my family could consider our Sabbath to start Friday night.

     Also, it's important that we understand the distinction between rest and sleep.  This whole idea of rest does not mean lay around and do nothing all day.  It means we are to be refreshed in Christ through everything we do.  I don't believe it matters what you do honestly (within reason).  I know my dad finds peace and rest by manual labor.  He would go out and work on building our deck on his sabbath because it was a time of just getting away from the hustle of work and he could relax.  Of course by the end of the day he was tired, but he would be renewed.  I know it's a little difficult to take in; that manual labor could be rest. But I honestly believe that if the sabbath was all about just getting sleep and sitting on a couch all day, then God wouldn't have given us the need to sleep every night.  He would have created us so that every seventh day we would get super tired and sleep for 24 hours.

     For me, I find refreshment on going on a run, or going to the gym.  Maybe it's just the endorphins running through me after I work out, but I always feel more relaxed.  I can set aside everything that's stressing me out; everything that's causing me to worry.  I find that sometimes if I just sit around and eat all day I tend to feel like I wasted the whole day.  And that's not the point of the Sabbath.  I feel like you need to find what refreshes you;  what relieves your stress; what brings you into an unhindered fellowship with God.  Because that's what it's all about.