By the way

I’m sick of The DaVinci Code, sermons about TDVC, books about TDVC, magazine articles about TDVC…………..and the movie hasn’t even opened yet.

Tired of not working

Several years ago, I decided to try the whole Sabbath concept of working six days a week and resting from it on Sunday. Some weeks—like this one—that is harder than others, and I find myself writing, answering email, and working on projects much of Saturday so that Sunday can be work-free.

By and large, it’s been a helpful antidote to the overscheduled, multitasking world I live in the rest of the week. Other than 90 minutes with the 4s class each Sunday morning (which isn’t exactly restful, but it is fun), Sundays are mine to do whatever I please.

Which is exactly the problem—facing hours on end in which I’m supposed to be resting just stresses me out.

God designed work to give our days purpose. The most fun days for me are the ones where I accomplish something—or many things—not the days I spend lounging around. Although buying new patio furniture and replanting flowers, cleaning my pit of a kitchen, or organizing my over-stuffed file cabinet are not “restful” activities, if I had spent today doing one or two of those tasks I’d now be looking back on the day with a feeling of satisfaction, and enjoying the flowers or clean kitchen or organized start to a new week. If I’m honest with myself, that feeling of accomplishment is more rewarding, and more restful, than any amount of magazine-reading or napping.

Without “permission” to do these chores today, even in a voluntary, New Testament kind of Sabbath, I feel restless and set adrift, overwhelmed with options for “relaxing” activities. Do I start that book, call that friend, take a nap, catch up on Lost, cook from scratch? Whatever I choose, that means choosing not to do something else, and I have to cram all this relaxation into one day and it’s already 8 p.m. and I’m WASTING IT.

Or so the pathology goes. But can you relate?

I understand the reasons God commanded the Sabbath for the Israelites, and I understand the physical, psychological, and spiritual benefits that have created a renewed interested in the idea. We all need quiet, we all need to turn the phones off, we all need to connect with other people, light a candle, make a meal. I’m just not sure how to reconcile those ideas with my own temperament. So I’m spending part of my Sabbath today working on it.