I Remember Summer (Mike Glenn)

By Mike Glenn

I remember summer. The three months between the end of May when school would let out and September when school would begin again. We didn't have any projects to do. We didn't have books to read. Sure, we read books, but we read the books we wanted to read. We didn't read any books teachers made us read.

Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash

We would sleep late and get up with nothing to do. Sure, our parents would have left us chores to do but we had all day to get them done.  We would find our friends later in the morning and make our plans on how to do nothing all day long. 

I lost summer a long time ago. We all did. Now, I know its summer because it's hot and anything I leave in my car too long becomes too hot to touch. Now, I work year round. The first thing that happens when you get your first job is you lose your summer vacations. No more taking three months off. Nope, we work all year long.

With the invention of the light bulb, we don't have to stop working when it gets dark.  With the invention of the computer and the web, we can work anytime and anywhere. That translates to "all the time and everywhere." During the pandemic, when everyone was working from home, most of us worked longer hours. With no ritual of shutting down the office and going home, most of us just kept working.

The problem is we were never designed to work like this. We can't work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Guess what? Robots can't either. They have to routinely be shut down for maintenance and repairs.

This is what most of us don't understand about the Sabbath. Sabbath is God's good gift to us. Yes, we have to work and yes, we have to work hard. That's life. But one day a week, we rest.  When the Israelites were coming into the Promised Land, the gift of Sabbath was a sign of God's continuing favor towards them. One day a week, the Israelites would not work and no one could make them work. One day a week, the Israelites would celebrate each other and the goodness of God who had brought them out of Egypt.

Leave it to us to ruin a perfectly good idea. Now, the Sabbath has been lost in the weekend. The weekend begins on Thursday night and goes to Sunday night when we have to think about going back to work on Monday. On these days, we'll cram as much excitement as we can. Our children will play ball and we will drive them all over the country so they can play games. Adults themselves will also play games and travel and squeeze all the adrenaline pumping excitement into every moment of our weekend.

We'll return to work on Monday more tired than when we left on Friday afternoon. We are addicted to adrenaline, we don't know how to rest. We brag on how little sleep we can go on.  Finally, all of this is beginning to catch up with us.

These days, everyone is talking about burnout and life balance. There have been tons of books and hours of videos prepared to help us find some kind of rhythm to our lives. And where have all of our studies, workshops and self-help retreats gotten us? Right back to the Ten Commandments. In fact, back even farther than that. We need to go back to the first moments of creation when God created day and night. Day was for work. Night was for rest. We have six days to work and one day to rest.

We have one day out of every week to reconnect to God. We have one day to celebrate our families and friends. We have one day to sit quietly and think about our lives. Sure, we may be making good time on our journey, but are we on the right road? Sabbath gives time to think through these questions. This and so much more is all within God's good gift of Sabbath. Guess what? Pastors, especially pastors, need to keep Sabbath.

Maybe God was on to something. What do you think? I suggest we at least give it a try. Hey, here's an idea for all us. Take a day off this week. Tell the world it's God's will.