Rest with Rhythm
Rev. Hugh D. Reid

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. 2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
Genesis 2:1-2:3 (NRSV)

Spring has sprung beautifully, Easter, the Flea market and Art Show are behind us, and the days now roll on through the 24th of May to June, July, and August. It is the Sabbath time of year for most of us in Canada. We look forward to ceasing from the usual routines of work and investing more time in our families and favourite summer pastimes.

The pace of life slows, schools let out, and vacations are planned and anticipated. Some might indulge in "stay-cations", others in annual pilgrimages to a family cottage, favourite campground, or some getaway place, new and unexplored or as comfortable and well-worn as an old easy chair.

Whatever the place or date for your summer break, it's a well established, scientific fact that your degree of tiredness is in direct proportion to the proximity of the holiday. In layman's terms: the closer you are, the tireder you feel.

This is a common pattern. We observe similar kinds of direct relationships across a wide range of human endeavours. For instance, there is a direct relationship between the ideal weight you wish to achieve and the difficulty in losing the last five pounds to achieve it. Again, there is a direct relationship between the pressure on a putt and the likelihood that you are going to miss it. You can always sink those twenty footers for a triple bogey.

With regard to the direct relationship between holidays and tiredness, the effect is compounded by the need to clear one's desk or agenda before one leaves. Thus the fact you are more tired the closer you are to your vacation, is not only the result of emotional and spiritual factors but also because you have to work twice as hard in the week before your holiday and twice as hard in the week after, in order to have your time away. When you meet the workload on return, at least you're rested but clearing the mountain before you go, well, you're tired to begin with.

All of this makes one ask why go on a holiday at all. But maybe the problem isn't with the holiday, it's with the way we fit it into our lives.

The Sabbath Day was not a 'break' with routine it was the fulfillment of the week that went before and the meaning of the week that lay ahead. We need holidays, but we shouldn't live for them; we live to them and from them.

Holidays, vacations, breaks, worship, give us perspective, time to recharge, repair, and refocus but they shouldn't be a time when we run and hide. A retreat in this sense is not to flee from battle but to reflect on the meaning of what you are doing and return to live with a richer sense of that meaning and the value of your life and the lives around you.

In Hebraic thought, time wasn't linear but rhythmic. The Sabbath was the beat that sounded through the other moments, the pulse that gave pace and and shape and momentum to the other movements and melodies. Life carried into the Sabbath and from it as the rhythm moves a song forward.

If our lives run from exhaustion to exhaustion, then we're not living in the rhythm of meaning and fulfillment that is God's love and gift for us, from day to day, week to week, year to year, life to new life.

In this Sabbath time of year, if you're drawing so close to your holiday you can hardly stand it, pause for a moment and think of the meaning and value that your life has in that moment and receive it. Your holiday won't seem so far away and when it comes it will be just affirm and fulfill that gift and truth.

Enjoy your Sabbath and the Rhythm of God's Grace.

Yours in Sabbath Time,
Rev. Hugh D. Reid.