The Importance of Sabbath

Laundry with Blue Mop 
by Richard Claremont

I'm a busy gal. I look at my calendar, and at least 60% of it is blocked out with various events and responsibilities. In the remainder of my time, I'm doing homework, scholarship applications, writing, dancing, sleeping, eating, and hanging out with my family. I'm a senior in high school, and right about now, my peers and I have never felt busier. 

I have friends who are not sleeping, who are staying up every single night writing essays, and who are spending their entire weekends outlining said essays. It's not just high schoolers. Our culture is so busy. Our phones are filled with activity clamoring for our attention. Our homes are filled with noise and stress. Our schools are brimming with exhaustion and endless tasks. Our jobs are consumed by new difficulties and responsibilities every second. 

We live in what's called an efficiency culture, one that values higher than anything else the ability to push through and work in any circumstance, with little regard for the side effects produced by endless girlbossing. We are called to live for the hustle, to work hard and make money, and to be satisfied with a never-ending corporate workload. It's what our grandparents did, what our parents are doing, and what we are being taught to do. 

That's not healthy. 

It's also not holy. Now, don't get me wrong. Work is objectively a good thing. It provides us with an outlet for our purpose and helps us build healthy habits. Work was created by God, who gave Adam tasks and responsibilities in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. Work is not sinful, and work is not bad. However, too much of a good thing can be bad. 

Work is the means, not the end. The purpose of life isn't to work, and it isn't to make money. The purpose of life is to glorify God and to love others. That means that we're not just working to work. We're working to better ourselves and to help others. We're not just making money to make money. We're making money to pay our rent, to host our friends, to feed the homeless, to support education. Your work means nothing if it has no purpose behind it. 

Yes, work is a good thing, even a holy thing. But there wasn't just work in the Garden. There was rest. "On the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done." (Genesis 2:2.) God Himself rests! If the GOD who created the WHOLE UNIVERSE chooses to rest, does that not seem to be an implication that maybe you should do the same? God doesn't need to rest, but He chooses to in order to set an example for you.

Your mind needs rest. Taking a break isn't necessarily laziness. It allows us the time to reset out of the fight or flight mode, and to give our brains peace. When we have rest, it allows us to come up with new ideas to do better work when we are done resting. 

Your body needs rest. We are called to treat our bodies well, to respect them as "a temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19). If you are forcing your body to work until you physically can't anymore, that's not respecting your body. Rest is a biological necessity. In order to be awake and functioning, we have to rest in sleep for at least six or seven hours. When you exercise, and your body is struggling to keep up, it switches from aerobic respiration to anaerobic respiration. Your body starts burning your energy stores and leaves you with lactic acid, which is why you feel sore. In order to reset, get rid of that soreness, and restock your energy supplies, your body needs to rest.

Your relationships need rest. When you are under stress and working nonstop, you are not as kind as you wish you were. You are panicked and distracted, and your family and friends feel that. Resting not only allows you time to spend with them, but also creates an environment where that time spent together will actually be beneficial. 

There is a difference between rest and laziness. Rest is not doomscrolling for six hours. It is not sleeping in until 2 PM. Rest is intentional. It is setting aside a specific time in which you actively choose not to engage with tasks that would be considered "work" and instead focus on things that help you reset and recharge. Rest is going for a walk. Rest is cooking yourself a meal. Rest is catching up with your family. Maybe rest is reading a book. Maybe rest is just sitting in silence. 

Work is good. But without rest, work becomes damaging. Take a break. I promise you have the time. Maybe you need to start setting aside Sundays as a Sabbath day of rest. Maybe you need to wake up just a little bit earlier to give yourself thirty minutes of peace before your day starts. But you need to make intentional time to rest. Without rest, you are going to burn out. You are going to feel low and broken, and exhausted. You need rest. It is Biblical. It is biological. It is a human necessity.