The Danger of Living in a Sabbath-less Cycle

The fourth of the Ten Commandments reads…

 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.  (Exodus 20:8-11)

For the next couple weeks I’m going to talk about the biblical concept of Sabbath.  Sabbath, according to the scriptures, is a day (originally Saturday) each week of mandatory rest.  It is an intentional interjection of rest, reflection, recreation (re-creation) and restoration into our regular routine of work.

This week I want to think about the danger of ignoring Sabbath.  Next week I’ll try to reflect on some practical ways for 21^st century people to practice Sabbath.

If I remember correctly I first heard Scott Scruggs describe what I call “the Sabbath-less Cycle.” (Say that three times fast.)  I immediately searched my car, house and office for hidden cameras and microphones.  I figured Scott must have me under constant surveillance.  See if this cycle is a description of your life.

BUSY is the first stage of the cycle.  In our world (maybe I should narrow that down to our Western world) I think we wear “busy” like a badge of honor. Someone will ask me, “How you doin?” and I’ll say, “O pretty good, just way too busy!”  And I don’t really say it with regret or genuine sorrow that my busyness has jeopardized my health or robbed me of valuable time with my family.  I say it with a kind of self-satisfaction, like being “way too busy” is a good thing.

But if, for example, I had a drinking problem and someone said, “How you doin?,” I can’t imagine saying, “O pretty good, just drinking way too much!”  The shame associated with self-destructive behavior would keep me from confessing, or hopefully cause the confession to be a genuine expression of regret.

The next stage is HURRY.  Being busy leads to being hurried.  In my busy lifestyle I typically feel like there are lots of tasks being left undone so I pick up speed in a vain effort to “catch up.” 

Work is a gift from God.  But when my work turns into a hurried frenzy of activity it yields little satisfaction with “a job well done.”  I just hurry to the next thing I need to do.

And hurry is habit forming. 

Not long ago I was mildly delayed in traffic.  Although I wasn’t late for any appointments and had no real reason to feel hurried, I still found myself trying to think of a way to take a different route around the traffic and began to feel anxious when I wasn’t able to. 

Which leads to the next stage, ANGRY.  Think of your last “traffic jam” type experience.  Did you begin to feel your temper rising?  Have you ever done something you later regretted because of unreasonable anger?  Have you ever wondered why you were so angry? 

One more traffic story.  My wife, Cindy, and I were on an interstate highway that suddenly turned into a parking lot.  Right away I started doing the lane change thing.  You know what I’m talking about.  The lane beside me started moving, so I quickly shifted into it. Then it stopped and the other one started moving.  So I switched to it.  This went on for a while.  But I noticed there was another car that stayed in the same lane.  He didn’t do the lane change thing.  All the time I’m switching lanes tying to get ahead but I’m actually getting father behind the guy who didn’t switch lanes at all.  The longer this went on (I couldn’t make myself stop) the angrier I became.

I find that when I am too busy with too many tasks I start trying to hurry in order to accomplish those tasks.  Inevitably hurry leads to anger, and most often I project that anger onto another human being who doesn’t deserve it. This anger creates a kind of vacuum in my life; a vacuum of love, joy and peace.

Which leads to the last stage in the cycle, EMPTY.  Is it possible for our schedules to be full but our lives empty?  Is it possible to be doing many good things and doing a lot of damage to ourselves and others at the same time? 

For many, the cycle of busy, hurry and angry ends with empty.  Actually, emptiness is not the end.  Unfortunately, we usually try to fill the emptiness with more busyness – and the cycle continues.  Many people (most people?) in our society are on the Merry-Go-Round and can’t seem to get off.  

The commandment to observe a day of rest is actually a gift from God because is breaks the destructive cycle of busy, hurry, angry and empty. 

Jesus once said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28)

The Sabbath (one day out of seven set aside for rest) forces a break in the Sabbath-less Cycle.  It is an intentional interjection of rest, reflection, re-creation and restoration into a cycle of busyness, hurry, anger and emptiness.

So here comes the “preachery” part.  Are you observing the Sabbath?  Are you obeying the fourth commandment (one of the top ten)?  Are you intentionally sabotaging the Sabbath-less Cycle?