Break it down

On Sunday, Pastor Tyler talked about how important rest is. Exodus 20:8 records God’s commandment to “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

For many teens in the area, this week should be a great opportunity to think about rest: Spring break.

Sleeping in until noon, flipping through the lackluster daytime programming, and complaining of “being bored” is the standard procedure for this week. By the time Thursday rolls around, school doesn’t sound that bad. Not much of a break, huh?

Just because we have an opportunity to rest doesn’t mean that we actually rest! Sundays and Spring break are great pictures of this:

• On Sunday we can mentally “check off” the Sabbath commandment, while we fill it with homework, housework, yard work, and all other kinds of work we create on a weekly basis.
• During Spring break or vacation, we assume that we will automatically be rejuvenated because we are out of our normal cycle.

I think that the weekly cycle isn’t so much the problem as is our penchant for vacillating back and forth between laziness and a frenetic pace.

We need to plan rest; primarily to honor the Lord, and also for the benefits that He has attached to such obedience. His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9), so we ought to search for His wisdom and not what we think we can get away with – either doing too much or not enough, both of which put us on the path to sin.

Do you want real rest? A real opportunity for a break this week or on Sundays? Take a minute to evaluate how you can squeeze every benefit out of that next chance for rest; not by looking at a calendar, but by being introspective and open to the Lord’s leading. Proverbs 3:7-8 illustrates the tangible benefits of seeking first the ways of the Lord:

Do not be wise in your own eyes;

Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

It will be healing to your body

And refreshment to your bones.