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A day of rest clipart12/12/2023 ![]() ![]() Why? Because if we kept a weekly Sabbath, we would not need vacations. The devil always twists the goodness of God. When God makes sex, the devil comes up with adultery. ![]() When God invents sugar, the devil makes Sweet’N Low. I think the devil loves taking that which is of God and giving us cheap knockoffs. But even if we did vacation well and took great amounts of time off for restorative rest, vacations are a poor substitute for a weekly day of Sabbath rest. The point? Even when we do vacation, we do it poorly. And 20 percent of those who do, often spend their vacation staying in touch with their jobs through their computers or phones. Americans take the shortest paid vacations of anyone in the world. In fact, only 14 percent take vacations that last longer than two weeks. Studies reveal that 37 percent of Americans take fewer than seven days of vacation a year. Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World, Baker Publishing Group, 2018, Kindle Location 311. “That God rested on the seventh day, and blessed and sanctified it, is the first divine action which man is privileged to witness and that he himself may keep the Sabbath with God, completely free from work, is the first Word spoken to him, the first obligation laid on him.” Karl Barth famously pointed out that the only thing Adam and Eve had to celebrate on that first Sabbath was God and his creation: And before our six days of labor, we receive the day of rest. Before our lives in this world began, we got nine months of rest in the womb.īefore taking up a vocation, we get a few years to just play as children. God’s nature always gives rest first work comes later. Sabbath is, in my estimation, the first image of the gospel in the biblical story. Their first knowledge of God and the world God had made was that rest was not an afterthought - rest was of first importance….Īdam and Eve had accomplished nothing to earn this gratuitous day of rest. Imagine what Adam and Eve learned about God’s generosity from their first impression of him on their first day. John Koessler, The Radical Pursuit of Rest: Escaping the Productivity Trap, InterVarsity Press. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Our vulnerability is captured in the familiar children’s prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. We are not in control during sleep but must depend on the mercy and protection of God. We are oblivious to our surroundings, supine and powerless. While we sleep the world continues to be active. “Stay awake! Stay awake!” he commanded himself. There was nothing left for him to do but mutter. One night my wife walked past his door and heard him muttering to himself. He was consigned to his crib by the superior force of parental authority. “No night-night! No night-night!” he cried in indignation. He steeled himself against the prospect of sleep the way a wrestler braces himself to meet an opponent. Instead of welcoming rest, Drew confronted it. He hated the thought of going to bed while the rest of the world continued on. I think he felt cheated by the prospect of sleep. When my eldest son, Drew, was a toddler, bedtime was a battleground in our house.
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