Seriously…We Need A Rest Stop! … Hello weekend readers. The weekend is upon us and I hope you are taking time away from work, studies, chores—just taking time away to rest, revel in God’s creation, go to a movie or out to dinner with your spouse and kids, etc. In other words, are you “resting” from work and doing ‘me-time’? We Americans are especially known for break-neck-full-speed-ahead living. When do we stop, breathe in and out and be thankful, grateful, and feel at-rest?

I was re-reading one of my favorite Max Lucado books, Traveling Light. This book makes me stop and think, smell the roses before I’m 6-foot under them! Really, we burden our lives to the point we are not ‘traveling light’ at all but trying to move with heavy burdens which steals our time for rest, relaxation and renewal. ‘Rest’—the Sabbath—as God called it, wasn’t an idea, it was a mandate!

Let’s take a quick trip into the 10 Commandments: God needed few words for most of the 10, such as 5 words to condemn adultery; four words to denounce thievery and murder. But then God changed it up with the 6th one. Here are God’s words for the 6th Commandment from The Voice/Hebrew translation in Exodus 20-8-11:

“You and your family are to remember the Sabbath Day; set it apart, and keep it holy. You have six days to do all your work, but the seventh day is to be different; it is the Sabbath of the Eterna0— your God. Keep it holy by not doing any work—not you, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, or any outsiders living among you. For the Eternal made the heavens above, the earth below, the seas, and all the creatures in them in six days. Then, on the seventh day, He rested. That is why He blessed the Sabbath Day and made it sacred.”

Wow—God wasn’t backing down on our need for rest and a time to be with Him! Re-read the passage above slowly—one word after another, then ask yourself what this means to you? Examine your “Sabbath Day” and what you do with it or don’t do with it. You see, this wasn’t God’s suggestion, it was a commandment that God wanted us to take to heart and use every week in our lives.

God was aware of what we sinners were going to go through in life—starting from the exile of the Garden of Eden to here-we-are-in-2023! God already had a “bad taste” with the Israelites and their travails, whining, back-stabbing and idol-worship before God sent Moses up the mountain to bring back the Commandments to put the people back on the right track. Did they listen—do we listen? I think you know the answer.

The sacred “10 Commandments” have been broken again and again and continue to do so to this day. Part of the reason for our stubbornness is that we do NOT take time for rest. We object by saying “O God, I have so much to do, surely you know?” and God often replies with “there is something more important than Me?”

Let’s face it, we are on the fast-track of the demands our society tells us we must do so we can “make it”—whatever that means. We don’t like to rest; we feel guilty if we even try to; after all we’ll just have to make up for the lost time—duh—God who holds our time in his hands!” We have no ability whatsoever to control time and we know that, yet, we try to placate God’s command of Sabbath by offering up one reason after another, hoping God “will understand” and get us off the hook. How’s that working out?

God’s answer to all this foolishness is: It is NOT your job to run the world. That is my job. Your job is to follow my Commandments—every one of them—and find the rest, the wisdom, the guidance and the grace you will need to live in this world.”

Let’s take a day with TV and phones off, ear-buds out, and any other distractions that would keep us from trying to run every twit and tiddle of our lives. Instead, let’s embrace a Sabbath Day where, in the long run, we will do more by doing less. Speaking of which, it’s a gorgeous day out right now and I’m done with this devotion so I’m heading out to my comfy lounger to watch the hummingbirds and lift my eyes to the mountains and the blue lake around me, where I can have an encounter with God in a Sabbath time together. Take my word for it, nothing on earth is better, AMEN!