So I bought a new app called Sleep Cycle to monitor my sleeping habits. I'm still not sure how it can tell if I'm in deep sleep or just faking it. But according to the app, my sleep quality is running about 75%. That's about average for people in the USA. Folks in Finland average about 79%. Probably for two reasons, I guess: Every home has a Finnish spa and it's dark there...a lot.
Why care about sleep? Because if you're not sleeping well, you won't work well. Recovery time is just as important as productivity time. Atheists, agnostics and people of faith all agree on this point: you can't be as productive without recovery.
God knew this before we did. That's one reason why He created the Sabbath, one day out of seven in which He paused. Not because He needed recovery time but because He wanted to enjoy and review what He had just accomplished.
Not only did He create the Sabbath, He blessed it. He was making a statement, "This day will be unique. It is blessed and it will be a blessing for those who remember."
Most of us know the commandment: "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy." Another way to define "holy" is, "set apart." Unique. But we often fail to set one day apart and so we miss the blessing.
'Oh, so you're reminding me about a day off? Check! I actually have two days off!' Yes, but it's more.
The word 'sabbath' is from a Hebrew word that simply means "stop." For many of us, our days off are like what we do at traffic stops. We don't stop. We do what we call a "rolling stop" which is a misnomer! Stop means stop. Roll means roll. The blessing of the Sabbath is only available for those who stop, not roll!
Is that your day off? A rolling stop? You may not go into the office, but you fill it with stuff you need to catch up on: laundry, fix-it projects, yard work. Or to binge-watch episodes you missed in your fav series. I don't think that's what God had in mind. What did God do on the first Sabbath? He stopped. He rested. He saw the goodness of what He had done. God wants you to do that. It's a day for me to say, "I'm not God. I can't go 24/7/365. My Father stopped on purpose. So should I." And I should prepare to stop. Not just come to a screeching halt.
John Mark Comer (Garden City: Work, Rest and the Art of Being Human) says it like this: Think of the Sabbath like a weekly holiday. You don’t just wake up on Christmas morning and think, What should we do today? No, you get ready for it. The same is true for Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July or your birthday or anniversary — you plan and prep and shop and look forward to it for days at a time.
I'm trying to do this more. The day I have traditionally celebrated as Sabbath is Friday. I'm attempting more often to prepare on Thursday. By Thursday evening, I want the computer off. Social media off. Paperwork done. Check register balanced. So I can come to a full stop on Friday. And rest. Play. Walk. Reflect. Celebrate. Eat. Drink. Be merry. Make love. Worship. Be thankful.
Again John Mark Comer says so artfully, "We work for six days, and then we rest for one. And this cadence of work and rest is just as vital to our humanness as food or water or sleep or oxygen. It’s mandatory for survival, to say nothing of flourishing. I’m not a machine. I can’t work seven days a week. I’m a human. All I can do is work for six days and then rest for one, just like the God whose image I bear."
Come to a full stop, friend. You aren't a machine. You're human. Get over it.
So, how does the commandment of Sabbath make you feel? How are you dealing with that?
