What I'm Doing About Being Too Busy

I've been too busy.  Maybe you have too.  This is what I'm doing about it: Rest.  

The word rest in Hebrew is shabbat, from which we get the word Sabbath.  Shabbat means "to cease or stop."  There is a time to be active and work.  Then there is a time to cease doing the things you do the other six days of the week.  Of the Ten Commandments - before killing, stealing, or committing adultery – the third calls us to “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”  

 “God’s resting is a divine act that builds into the very created order of things a working/resting rhythm.” 
​                                                                          - Terrence Fretheim

Sabbath rest is necessary for two reasons:

Spiritual Wholeness. 

 It’s easy to become preoccupied with the creation and not the Creator.  Sabbath diminishes all your anxiety, self-importance, and stress by focusing on God’s work.   So that you never forget who breathed life into you, and who sustains your life with all that you need.  Sabbath is a sanctuary of time to rest in God, the One who makes you whole. 


Physical/Emotional Wholeness.  
Like sleep, and air, and food, humans need rest.  God built the need for rest into our DNA.  Cease from doing work.  Stop creating and simply be created.  Enjoy the fruit of creation.  


Things to do on a weekly basis:

• Be fed.  Worship regularly in a local Christian congregation.   
• Be devoted to a regular time of daily prayer and devotion.
• Make one day of the week different than the others.  Stop working and break routines.
• Get good sleep.  
• Go for a walk.
• Designate certain times where all electronic devices are off.  
• You're over-committed.  Say "no" to one thing this week.  

Things to do throughout the year:

• Schedule vacation.  It doesn't have to be expensive or complicated.  
• Go outside.  Especially for urbanites, go someplace quiet.  
• Don't check e-mail or social media AT ALL during vacation.
• Sleep in.
• Eat well.
• Go on an adventure with loved ones.  
• Praise God for all he's given you.

Okay, I'm writing about rest.  Time to do it.  I'm on my way to a farm in Wisconsin.  Spotted Cow, anyone?  

Feel free to share other Sabbath practices.  How do you rest?  

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