News from Ravensworth Baptist Church

Editor's note: The following reflection originally appeared in the October/November issue of communiqu�, the RBC youth newsletter.

At the church retreat last weekend, Marjory Bankson led us to consider the subject of sabbath.

It's an unfamiliar concept to many in our culture, but it is an important observance in the Bible and is still vital to each of us today. Sabbath is about rest and slowing our lives from the rapid pace we set most of the time. In the Bible, sabbath meant the cessation of work. Genesis 1 tells us that God did all the work of creation in six days, and then rested on the seventh day. We are to emulate God in this respect. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work," we read in Exodus 20:9-10. "But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work."

The reasons for this are numerous. For one, God created us not only to work, but also to play, and to rest, and to worship. If all we do is work, we will fail to develop important parts of ourselves. Another reason for sabbath rest is to create space for God in our lives. Sabbath is primarily about rest, but from the beginning it has also been associated with worship. Rest from our labors and the worship of God go hand in hand. As Jesus put it, "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). A third reason for practicing sabbath is that it teaches us humility and trust. Some people can't stop working because they think they are indispensible. If they stop working, even for one day, everything will fall to pieces. This is an arrogant attitude, and one that practicing sabbath can help correct. When we rest, we are saying to God that we know we are not the key to the success of every endeavor. We learn the humility of knowing that the world does not revolve around us. We learn to trust in God, around whom everything does revolve. Sabbath can help put us in our place.

What does sabbath mean in our day? For some of us, it still means to stop working. "Workaholism" is an epidemic in our culture, and it is all the more dangerous because we so seldom recognize it for the sickness it is. Instead, we actually applaud those who work and work and work and rarely rest. We call them "productive." We reward them with bonuses and pats on the back, encouraging them to take even more work upon themselves.

Maybe you know people like this. Maybe you are one of them. You're taking four honors classes, playing three different sports, and involved in a wide variety of other extracurricular activities. Your calendar is as full as any CEO's, and the thing that most often gets left out is rest-time for rejuvenation, the recharging of your batteries. You need to practice sabbath--simply to stop all your activity for a time. And stop drinking all that Red Bull.

Another way we may need to practice sabbath is by shutting off all our electronic devices for a set period of time. From the iPods that insulate us from the outside world, to the video games that sneak in and steal so much of our time, to the cell phones on which we are almost constantly talking and texting, to our computers and Blackberries that claim to keep us connected but in reality keep us chained, we need to turn everything off every once in a while. Don't reply to that email or text. Don't update your Facebook status. Turn off the soundtrack in your earbuds for a time, and listen instead to the sounds of the world around you.

There are many benefits to this kind of sabbath, but the most important is that it keeps God from getting edged out of our lives. God speaks to us most often in a still, small voice, not a thunderous blast, but how are we to hear God's voice if the music is always playing? Where will we find the time to give our status updates to God (a.k.a. pray) if we are always online? Where will we fit God into our day if our days are nothing but a ceaseless stream of distractions? How can we worship with our community of faith if we have sports practice or an extracurricular activity every Sunday morning?

Sabbath is about rest, but it is also about making space for God. It's about learning humility and trust. It's about surrendering ourselves to God, who knows us and knows what we truly need far better than we do.

In the name of that God . . . give it a rest.

Grace and peace,
bob

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