A Good Rest

{This was first published on April 1, 2007 in Necessary Therapy}

          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 20:11)

          I don’t take Sundays off (as a pastor, it’s an occupational hazard).  The trouble is, I don’t take any days off.  I work every day.  I don’t even take vacation time. 

          It’s not something I’m proud of.  In fact, I feel terrible that I am willfully violating one of God’s commandments.  Not keeping the Sabbath, not devoting time to be spiritually refreshed, disturbs my mind, upsets my heart, and saps my strength such that I have less to give to God and to others.        

          By contrast, every Sunday morning, Wendell Berry takes a leisurely stroll through his field, then comes back and write a “Sabbath poem”.

Here’s one of them -

 

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
work of ours the field is tilled
And left to grace.  That we may reap
Great work is done while we’re asleep.
When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.

 

 Rest.  It’s good.  Very good.