We are called to surrender our will and our life to God, to pick up our cross daily and follow Him. That last part is basically a call to suicide of the will. We are asked to die daily, and that is scary. No matter how much we do it or for how long, it will never become easy this side of eternity. It will become easier, but not easy. The earthly mind can never truly desire to completely rid itself of selfishness. Because of this simple truth that there will always be at least some conflict between the regenerated spirit within that desires to serve and obey God and the carnal mind with its desires to do its own thing.
Part of the conflict stems from a lack of trust. We can come to a place where we believe that God wants what's best for us easier than we can come to that place where we believe that what God wants will actually make us happier than what we want. After all, what's best is not always what is most enjoyable, as most parents can testify. So the question rises up in our hearts in the midst of this conflict between our will and His, can we serve Jesus and still enjoy our lives?
Can we mix our Christian responsibilities and service with our human desires? Can we strive for the higher calling and purpose of God and still enjoy the pleasures of creation? It seems impossible because of the limitations of time and resources. No matter how much we have, there doesn't seem like enough of us to go around. Time spent with family or enjoying a hobby is time that we are not being of service to the lost and broken. Time watching a football game is time we are not studying the Word or making the most of our prayer closet. Money spent to go to the movies is no longer available to help the needy or support ministry and missions.
The problem of limited time and resources is added to that lack of trust mentioned earlier. What lack of trust? Well, if you, dear reader. are anything like me, there are at least times where there is fear that if we completely surrender and mean it when we say we'll go anywhere and do anything that God wants that He'll...well, He just might call our bluff and take us up on our offer. What if the price is high? What if God call us to a mission that takes us away from spouse or children or grandchildren for weeks....or even a year or more? What if we are called to start or join a weekly prayer group or Bible study that takes away from the time we consider "free time." Even a price as relatively small as an hour or two of sleep sacrificed to get up early or stay up late to study and pray may be more than we really want to pay.
Yesterday the phone woke me early on my one day a week that I have the opportunity to sleep in. I pray for chances to be of service and profess my willingness to be used of God to bless others, but really God? I have to give up my sleep in day? I am embarrassed to admit feeling this way, but it's exactly how I felt. Here was a person in genuine need calling, asking for help, giving me the chance to be the hands of Christ and express His love, and I grumbled over a half hour or so loss of sleep. Then things got worse when I called back and learned that to do what was asked would cost me the first hour or so of the Texas Tech football game, the one college football game I wanted to watch. I obeyed. I was the willing servant, but I must admit that I did it more out of duty than desire. There was more grumpiness than joy in my service. Then, as if to give me a second chance, the same person called again, needing more help. This time it would cost me seeing the end of the game. Even as I grumbled it felt as if God were asking, "Am I more important to you than a football game?" The answer is yes, God, You are more important. I sacrificed that time and realized later, that if this was going to happen, that yesterday was the best time possible. I enjoyed watching that game much less than any other this season. Even though they won yesterday, they didn't play well. It wasn't a good game. The loss earlier to TCU was the most exciting game in years. I could have missed that. Missing the start and end of a mediocre game is a very small price indeed to be of service to God and my fellow man...in retrospect of course.
The assumption is that redemption and enjoying this life are competing against one another. Attention paid to the things of earth is attention that can't be paid to the spiritual and vice versa. This assumption is correct as long as we focus on the activity, on how much time, money and energy we have to spend in a day. But what if the two sides of the coin are joined on a deeper level, not by doing more but by doing less? This idea, I believe, is the significance, even in New Testament grace over law times, of the principle of the Sabbath.
The actual meaning of the word Sabbath means to cease or rest. Stop. Take a break. Don't do anything that would be labeled as productive, financially or otherwise. Do something that would be a waste of time by most standards. This is the example that God set when He who needs no sleep and has no need to recoup energy lost did something that seems so unnecessary for an all-powerful being. Rested.
To take a day of rest for every six days of labor is a day to remember that God has delivered us from our striving, and it is a day to enjoy family and friends, the world He created and the life we have worked for that He has given us. It is not that being able to work more is the goal of resting, but rather that to labor will provide the opportunity to rest. And that if ends are tight and it feels like we can't afford that rest, we learn to trust God for our needs and our rest and take it anyway. We don't rest so we can work, but we work so that we can rest and enjoy what we've done. To get that wonderful cool down period after exercise that feels so good, we must first truly work our muscles. We can't enjoy one without the other. We can't enjoy rest without work, but we'll never be able to enjoy work and service without rest either. And the very fact that a God who does not need rest established this time is evidence that our Daddy wants us to enjoy life, both our service and our rest.
Rest is the reward for the labor behind us, but it is also the proper spiritual place of preparation for the labor ahead of us. In the cycle of time, what is the last day of the week, also becomes the first day of the next week. The day of rest is God's gift to us. It is both a reward for laboring and a refueling of our spirit as well as our body before we are called to do more.
The Sabbath is a gift because it is a day purposefully set aside for time with God and for enjoyment. We're not allowed a break. We're actually commanded to be nonproductive. To just be. To just appreciate. To just enjoy the life that we've been given and the God who gave it to us. To take off the yoke and enjoy the feeling, sight and smells of the plowed earth behind us and the different smells and beauty of the field before us that's waiting to be plowed. To soak in the joy of life and the creation that God made for His glory and our pleasure. We properly observe the Sabbath when we spend that time on what rejuvenates us. It may be cuddling with my wife while watching a movie or watching a football game for me. It may be something entirely different for you. But whatever it is, we must receive it. God will not force His design for rest on us. We must become content with where we are and what He's given us before we can take a rest from the striving to do and have more or we will never be able to turn our minds away from the "to do" lists and simply, with gratitude, release the need and desire to be more and do more. Let us keep in mind the benefits and calling to schedule a time to enjoy and do less.
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