It’s no secret that we live in an ultra-high paced, interconnected society and world.   We are constantly going from one place and headed to another.  There are t ball games, dance practices, job requirements, family commitments and everything in between; on top of that there is trying to find quality time with your spouse and/or children and before you know it, it is 10 pm and your “to-do list” has about three things checked off (one of which is “make a to-do list”).

How many times have we exclaimed, “There are not enough hours in the day!”?

While this might be a common feeling, is it something that we have placed on ourselves?  Can that email wait until the morning?  Do I have really need to volunteer for this?

All the while we are working feverishly we are complaining about not having downtime but when we have the downtime we are guilty of not doing anything.  This in lies​ the problem.

As of people of faith, we have a good guide for how our time and self-care​ needs to take place but over time​ it has shifted making sure we attend church to “keep the Sabbath holy.”

In our world of instant communication and work overload, we are not good about the Sabbath-keeping commandment.

Walter Brueggemann wrote a wonderful book about just this problem, Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now.

Description–

Discussions about the Sabbath often center around moralistic laws and arguments over whether a person should be able to play cards or purchase liquor on Sundays. In this volume, popular author Walter Brueggemann writes that the Sabbath is not simply about keeping rules but rather about becoming a whole person and restoring a whole society. Importantly, Brueggemann speaks to a 24/7 society of consumption, a society in which we live to achieve, accomplish, perform, and possess. We want more, own more, use more, eat more, and drink more. Keeping the Sabbath allows us to break this restless cycle and focus on what is truly important: God, other people, all life. Brueggemann offers a transformative vision of the wholeness God intends, giving world-weary Christians a glimpse of a more fulfilling and simpler life through Sabbath observance.

Brueggemann weaves his scholarly knowledge of the Old Testament and the modern world into a package that is digestible​.  He argues that for one to take a break on a Sabbath is to resist the world around them.

As we begin 2019, let us resolve to make more time for our own Sabbath time and resist the world and culture of now, now, now and go, go, go.

In Christ,

Rev. Evan