The summer holidays have arrived, and many families have already gone away for their annual break. Children and young people are looking forward to 6 weeks when they don’t have to go to school and there is no homework. Hopefully the good weather will continue, and they will be able to relax, play with their friends and do things they enjoy doing. They, and their teachers, will return to school in September refreshed and ready to start a new academic year.
We all need a balance between work and rest. The proverb “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” is true. When we don’t have times of rest and recreation, we do become boring people. The work-life balance has changed for many with extended opening hours for supermarkets and larger shops. It may be convenient to be able to go to supermarkets at any time of day or night, but longer working hours are not good for those who work there. “Retail therapy” is not always therapeutic but can lead to spending more money than is wise and increasing the debit balance on our credit card.
God’s Ten Commandments set out the moral basis for our lives and include a commandment about a weekly day of rest – a Sabbath. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour 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 male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 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.”
All of us, whether we are religious or not, need and benefit from regular times of rest. God’s laws are not arbitrary rules imposed on us but were given for our good. Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” For Christians Sundays have a special significance because they remind us about heaven and the wonderful rest God has prepared for those who love him. At many funeral services these words from the Book of Revelation are read, “Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labour, for their deeds will follow them.’”