Honouring The Sabbath

A little while ago I read an interesting op-ed piece in the New York Times by Henry G. Brinton. He is a pastor of Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Virginia. The piece was about honouring the Sabbath and it made me think.

The Fourth of the Ten Commandments says to remember the Sabbath Day. Now, of course, there are people who are not religious who will be quick to dismiss this because there is nothing in the Old Testament that is relevant for today. And there are some that take the Sabbath to the other extreme and won’t even turn on lights on the Sabbath.

But remember the Sabbath, as many other “rules” in the law books of the Old Testament actually make sense and are relevant today. Our lives and society would benefit from some of these ancient “rules”.

As Brinton wrote:

The problem with ignoring the Sabbath is that it hurts us as individuals, families and communities. Wayne Muller, a therapist, minister and best-selling author, is convinced that modern life has become a violent enterprise.

We make war on our bodies by pushing them beyond their limits, war on our children by failing to give them our time, and war on our communities by failing to be kind and generous and connected to our neighbours. To bring an end to this destruction, we have to establish a healthier balance between work and rest.

Whether religious or not, people know that they need to take a day off in order to maintain their sanity and remain efficient and productive at work. But I'm convinced that downtime is not enough.

We need a formal day of rest. A true Sabbath gives us time to refresh and renew ourselves, regain proper perspective and redirect our lives to what is good and true and worthwhile.

Thing is, we live in a society were taking a break or resting is seen as wasting time. It is not considered a positive thing. Our society constantly “rewards” people who are focused on their work seven days a week. Even worse, the technology helps reinforce this. Be it our computer, Blackberries or cellphones, we are more and more connected with our workplace. And it is considered odd and suspicious if we try to have them disconnected from work.

Dennis Olson, professor of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, is quoted as saying:

Modern culture's time values often seem enslaving and oppressive. Work time seems increasingly to expand and rob us of time with family and friends. Computers and the Internet bombard us with a constant flow of data, messages and information.

So we are putting more time “at” the office. People might be working 9 to 5, but when they come home, they bring home work. Or use the Internet. And it doesn’t have to be obvious and active.

A good example in my own life, when I was part of a campaign to sell cellphones, when I was here at home, checking out news reports & articles, if one popped up about cellphones, I would make a special note of it. And then the next day, bring it to the attention of my colleagues. Thing is, I don’t own a cellphone and really care about them. So subliminally, work would sneak in and take some of my down time.

According to Brinton, back in 1910, the average amount of sleep an American had was nine hours a night. Today it is less than seven. The result is that we feel harried and hurried. We feel out of balance and even worse, out of sync.

Be it here or in Europe, until recently, the laws of the land kept businesses closed on Sunday. This forced people to focus on going to church, resting and relaxing. But many people did not like the restrictions so laws started to change allowing businesses to be open on Sunday.

Part of the reason was because, already, we were feeling the demand to work harder. It became increasingly difficult to get everything done on Saturday, balancing shopping, work and family life. So we needed to have things open on Sunday.

I saw this in Germany, when I was working back there in 1994. Groups were trying to have stores open in Sunday and there was quite a controversy about it. But I saw people at the Institute, having to come in on Saturday to do a few things leaving only Sunday to do laundry or shopping.

As Brinton points out, and I wholeheartedly agree, the Sabbath is not a Saturday or Sunday as it has become over the past long while. The Old Testament points out that six days are for work and one day is for rest. It does not specify the day of the week. It could be a Wednesday.

The word Sabbath is related to the Hebrew verb meaning “to cease, stop, interrupt”. This is a day to break away from work patterns. A day to recharge our batteries. Refresh ourselves. This should be a time to do things like hobbies, sports or artistic activities, not sitting in front of the boob tube. Or as theologian Marva Dawn, author of Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting suggests:

Spend more time with people in a friendly way, with meals (and) extended conversations, but no talk related to work.

Over the past while, I have been starting to try to give myself some down time. Be it, after work, sitting in a park near my place and just reading. Sitting on a bench on a busy street and watching the world go by. Or just going for a walk in part of the city I don’t know.

I am finding that little time I am giving myself is really helping me deal with the stress I am currently under. I am finding my thinking is becoming unstructured. The stress starts to melt away. And potential solutions to what is vexing me pop suddenly into my mind.

And I actually believe that during these short periods I am giving to myself, I am close to God, the Cosmic Muffin or whatever you want to call him. This time allows me to hear what he or she has to tell me without the clutter of the life around me.

I know there are some that will be scratching their head at this point. With all the crap that has happened and is happening, isn’t it naive or grasping at straws believing in the nebulous concept of a God? I don’t think so.

My concept of God is still in flux and everchanging. But I do believe there is something that is greater than us out there. Something that believes in us, even if we don’t believe in ourselves. Something that wants the best for each one of us, even though it means going through a rough time.

For me, be it the Christian, Jewish or Muslim God, those are just facets of what really is God. How can you represent something that is infinite. We can’t help construct an anthropomorphic object to explain the unexplainable.

But I have seen too much not to believe in God or the Cosmic Muffin. And see the basic truths revealed in some of the sacred texts I have started to read. Yet we are too stiff-necked to see it or are not just listening. And for me, that is part of the point of the Sabbath.

It is not just about going to the mosque, synagogue or church. It is setting aside a day where the most important thing is you. This is not work. This is not the lawn that needs mowing. This is not the toilet bowl that needs to be cleaned. This is about you.

Life has a tendency to separate us from what is really important. An artificial construct is formed and presented to us as what we should consider important. But at the expense of what makes us important. The essence of who we are.

The most important person in my life is myself. Yet I do not live alone. I live in a community, be it those I know at work or people I have built relationships with. One cannot underestimate the importance and impact of the communal dimension of rest. It is important for maintaining healthy relationships in our families, extended families and communities.

This can be as simple as going up to someone cottage to having a few people over for a BBQ and videos. Or like I had some years ago with Dungeons & Dragons. It was a time to just chat, share in something and have some good food.

This is a time where you get a chance to talk and share without time pressures or interruptions. Away from the demands of work. Also it can be valuable for decompression, allowing people to bitch for a little while about work.

The reality of it all is that we remember and cherish these times. Far more than the time we toil at work. Be it sitting quietly in a park, watching the world going by or being with a group of friends, that gives us something positive to focus on and remember. As the saying goes, no one on their deathbed says:

I wish I had spent more time at the office.

And the positive energy we get from giving ourselves a break makes us more productive at work. It can make the week go faster and/or more smoothly if we have something positive to look forward to. If you know that on Saturday you are getting together for a BBQ with friends, there is less chance you will focus on the negative happening at work.

We have to get back to the idea that we don’t live to work but work to live. And taking time for yourself reinforces that. That is what the Sabbath is all about.

It reminds us what is really important in our life. It isn’t money or the job we have. It isn’t the PlayStation or Acura. It is first & foremost ourselves and our mental health. And then our friends and family. It is our honest happiness that is important. Taking time for yourself is one big step toward that, not the pay cheque we have become a slave to.

Then again, this is easy enough to say. Now putting it into practice is harder. But I know I am going to try. After all, I am worth it.