God Himself took a day to rest after creating the world. We know this from the very first book of the Bible. Six days were spent in the business of creation, from the rhythms of the solar system to the intricate details of the tiniest insect, and then after everything was done (including making people), God rested. So one of the top commands that He gave to us is one for resting, by keeping that Sabbath day.
As Christians, we’ve shifted from Saturday as our day of rest and worship to Sunday, in honor of the resurrection. But for those of us who work in the church, taking that time to rest is a bit more complicated. We can’t exactly call Sunday a day of rest, not when we are often working the hardest and staying the busiest! When Sunday is a work day, you have to get creative on resting.
This is not exclusively for church workers, either. Plenty of professions have required work on Sundays, whether it’s a business open every day and you were scheduled for Sunday, or if you are the owner of a small business that has things happen even on the weekend.
For us, Fridays have been our day to rest. Granted, there’s a few exceptions to the rule, like Good Friday and funerals and the occasional wedding. But mostly, we keep Fridays as a day off.
But in Scripture, God also gave commands for longer periods of rest. Why on earth would He do that? Because we need it. We are so good at staying busy! God had to have looked ahead to our current culture in the United States and other nations and known how we would avoid taking down time. There are all kinds of stats about Americans especially not utilizing all of their vacation days.
My husband and I are participating in a special kind of rest this week. We left Monday to attend a Shepherd’s Canyon Retreat. These retreats are designed for church workers to get away, to rest, to refresh and renew, and to return to the ministry better prepared to face everything that comes along. This retreat could not be happening at a better time for us, and we thank Jesus for the opportunity.
Please pray for us during this time that we will embrace the opportunity to rest and recharge. I am even taking the time to write this post and schedule it before leaving so that I don’t have ministry concerns on my mind while we are gone.
Thank you all for giving us this opportunity of time.