February 19

Are you tired all the time?

Today: Deut 18, 26, Deut 5:12-15
Tomorrow: Deut 16, Leviticus 16, 23, 29

I'm not sure I understand it, but I have this feeling that an increasing amount of my conversations deal with the subject of weariness, over commitment, and the perceived need to drop out.

Here are phrases that I hear all the time, maybe you have even said some of these:
1. I've got to cut down; I'm into too many things.
2. I think I'm on the edge of burn‑out.
3. I never have any time for myself these days.
4. You can't believe how busy my life is.

I get the feeling we are a tired generation. Evidence of that can be found that Americans are overworked and exhausted these days. Workaholism is a modern word. No matter how hard we are willing to work in our competitive world, there always seems to be someone willing to put in a few more hours than we are. The amazing thing is that all this weariness, exhaustion, fatigue is taking place at a time when we have more leisure than any generation who has every lived in this country. How can these things be? Can I suggest that this is not necessarily a weariness of the body, but this is a weariness of the spirit and soul?

God in his infinity wisdom has a solution for our burn out; it is called a Sabbath Rest.

Deut. 5:12-14 "Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 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.”

It might be time for us to read the instructions. Here is the remarkable principle. We work for six days and then we get a day of vacation. A day for our souls to catch up with our bodies, a day of enjoyment of God and the wonderful gifts he has given us, in a sense a mini-vacation day to renew ourselves.

Here are some words from an Israeli tourist brochure: “Make the Sabbath an eternal monument of the knowledge and sanctification of God, both in the center of your busy public life and in the peaceful retreat of your domestic hearth. For six days cultivate the earth and rule it. But the 7th is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Let a man therefore realize that the Creator of old is the living God of today, that He watches every man and every human effort, to see how man uses or abuses the world loaned to him and the forces bestowed upon him, and that He is the sole architect to whom every man has to render an account of his week's labors.”

Jewish awareness of a unique pace of Sabbath is something we should consider. Routines are to stop, labors are to cease. Even the homemaker in the pious Jewish family is to refrain from cooking or menial tasks. Food is prepared before Sabbath begins so that she also can enjoy the fruit of the special rest day. This is a far cry from the incredible, filled up, pressurized day many evangelical Christians tend to make of their day of rest.

Make Sunday the high point of your week. Make it a day to go to church, spend time alone with God, and renew your relationships with family and friends. It is a day to re-create your spirit and soul.

We are as busy as we choose to be. Choose not to be busy this coming Sunday. Take a vacation with God.