…or more specifically, ceasing to work. I’m reading Why Guys Need God by Mike Erre right now, and he’s talking about how work is not the result of the Fall, that work is not punishment but that we were always intended to work. His position is that God worked in creation and that our working is a part of our being created in the image of God, which got me thinking…
What does it mean to rest? This may seem like an odd question when reading about work being a part of our very nature, but I don’t have a problem working. I work at work, and when I come home, I work some more. I enjoy work. I enjoy what I do, and I enjoy the projects that I do on the side. My hope is that those side projects will eventually become profitable, and I enjoy the work that it takes to make them so. I especially enjoy the creative aspects of these projects, but when God rested, he rested from creating.
I guess what I’m really asking is, what does it mean to shabbat, to rest, to take a Sabbath. Observing the Sabbath (or at least a Sabbath) was a command that was never rescinded in the New Testament. It’s a commandment that I’m not very good at following. But even if I was good at it, what does it even mean to take a Sabbath? Is it to rest not only from day-to-day work but to rest even from being creative? Woodworking, painting, and building hot rods are all thoroughly enjoyable activities for many, but they are also a form of work? Should we rest even from these on our Sabbath?
I have no good answers on this, only questions.
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