[2020 Vision] The Home: Sabbath Sample

Rest and Recover

In 1894, the Journal of the American Medical Association published the findings of Dr. Hodge of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He found that our nerve cells are not fully recovered from a day’s wear by a night’s rest. They must be recovered every few days or as often as once a week, or nervous exhaustion is invited. And further than that, they cannot be rested by less than 30 to 36 hours of continuous rest. How do you get 36 hours of rest? By taking a Sabbath day: a full day of rest, with the preceding and following night. We go to sleep, we have a Sabbath, we go to sleep again, and in that time period, our bodies are able to recover. God’s creation is amazing. He made us in marvelous ways. 

The famous Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, said it like this: “In the long run, we will accomplish more by sometimes doing less.” Pastor Robert Morris, author of Take a Day Off, a book on balancing life and work, wrote that stress is a factor in five out of the six leading causes of death, which are heart disease, cancer, stroke, lower respiratory disease, and accidents. It is estimated that 75 to 90% of all doctor visits are stress-related. Yikes! 

Do we keep the Sabbath? Rest is not a reward for completion of our work; rest is a gift of God along the journey. What we have in our minds is, “Once I get it all done, then I'll stop.” But the momentum of getting it all done makes it to where now you are going 60 miles an hour, and it is hard to get back down to 35. Do you ever find that it is only on day two of the weekend that you really begin to rest? Do you ever find that it sometimes is week 2, if you get a vacation that long, that you really begin to rest? 

Because we don't have rest along the journey, we are always looking for it, longing to finish and finally be able to rest. I have bad news and good news for you. You will never finish. This is terrible news. But isn’t it also kind of freeing? You'll never finish, and that's okay. Take a Sabbath. Get some rest. Trust in God’s provision and realize your need. He is able to do more with our surrender than our efforts.