Puppies need a lot of naps. All that growing and playing and growing and playing is exhausting.
Similarly, we often do way too much growing our lives and playing at everything and more growing our lives and playing whatever we missed before. We’ve forgotten the art of rest. I don’t mean laziness or slothfulness. I’m talking about the never ending merry-go-round we keep our families on; school, clubs, sports and more sports, dance lessons, voice lessons, karate, church services, church clubs, church groups, church ministry, jobs, business trips, etc…
None of these things are bad or evil. It’s just that the American Middle Class is obsessed with more and more and more, which reduces the value of everything we are trying to squeeze into our lives.
Israel got in trouble doing this. They didn’t keep the Sabbath, the day of rest. Nor did they keep the Sabbatical Year. Multiple decades in exile was the result of their unwillingness to follow God’s example of working six days and resting for one. I don’t think which day we rest is the issue, but rather that we do it. And it doesn’t have to be eight hours of continuous Bible reading and mantras. It just needs to be a day we get off the roller coasters and collect ourselves and our family. It should be a time we rejuvenate, reconnect and restore the relationships around us and our relationship with the Creator.
