Feb 09 2008
Shabbas
Saturday is my day off. It is the only day of the week I try to keep clear of commitments and appointments. (Well, usually. Today I’m breaking my rules to go help my friend Jamie celebrate his birthday by watching the Bud Shootout on TV.) You hear preachers talk about how God mandates a tithe from us: One tenth of our money, pre-tax, to further his purposes! But nobody talks about the idea of a sabbath. The sabbath is God telling us, “Here, take one seventh of the time I’ve given you on earth and just relax. It’s on me.” One day in seven becomes “sacred”. Nothing is supposed to touch it. It’s a day to relax, be thankful, and recharge for the next six.
The idea is coded into nature. Farmers rotate crops or leave their fields fallow. Animals and people sleep. There are rainy and dry seasons, winter and summer, spring and fall. Day and night. Nothing is meant to run forever without a period for cooling the engines and grabbing a bite to eat. If we do nothing but work all of the time, we are violating a very basic law of the universe. So, for the same reason plants climb into their roots to wait for spring to unfurl them, and the same reason a bear loads up on food and finds someplace quiet to lay low for the short days, I sit around in my socks on Saturdays, watching movies and waiting for Sunday to reset my week. You can’t flout the rules of the universe forever and expect to still live under its roof. Relax.
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