For “Scripture Sunday”:
When Do I Get a Break?
“The calendar has Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and others. It seems there is a day for everything—but where is your day?”
Are you working more and relaxing less? Doing more but never getting everything done? Running here and there but only running yourself down? Maybe it's time you took a break!
In today’s world of rush here, hurry there, a haggard lament often arises with a weary sigh: “When do I get a break? I never have any time for myself. I’m up before dawn getting ready for work, commute an hour or more, work at least eight hours, commute home arriving after dark—and I’m beat.”
Family responsibilities add to the load. Many a mom tells the same story:
“I was up at 3 a.m. to comfort a child with an upset stomach, then got out of bed at 5 a.m. to make lunches for everyone, put a load of clothes in the washer, fix breakfast, get the children dressed and off to school, and get ready for work. I leave from work to pick up the children after school and go home. Then I take the clothes out of the washer, put them in the dryer and prepare dinner. After dinner, I do the dishes and get the children ready for bed.
“That doesn’t include doing the ironing and cleaning the house. I don’t have time to be exhausted, but I am. Just after midnight one of the children is having a nightmare and needs comforting. Finally I get back to bed and start the whole thing over again at 5 a.m.”
Working more, relaxing less
It seems there’s never time to sit back and relax—and if we do, we feel guilty. What’s the answer? Life is much more than the 40 hours a week on the job. How in this complicated 21st century (filled with time-saving devices!) can a person find time to take a deep breath and just sit down? Is it possible?
The calendar has Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and others. It seems there is a day for everything—but where is your day? Many people don’t even have time for a vacation!
Sound familiar? One of the major complaints people have is about finding time for themselves or their family. Historically, after World War II, Americans had the shortest working week in the world. Now, according to Boston College professor Juliet Schor, they have the longest. Her comment is that the average American worker now puts in 200 hours per year more than in 1973.
Astonishing, isn’t it? People are so desperate for some free time that, states the Center for a New American Dream, half of the work force would trade a day off for a day less pay.
All these things are complicated by the fact that as soon as a tiny break presents itself, a compulsion to fill it takes over. We immediately rush to surf the net, talk on the cell phone, play a computer game, take one of the kids to soccer and another one to tennis or something. We find it nearly impossible to sit still.
That is a part of the problem. Most people aren’t comfortable unless something is going on. Society has convinced us that we should never just sit without something happening.
Sitting quietly and contemplating a beautiful sunset is almost a lost art, as is staring deeply into a crackling fire. It’s sometimes joked that those who practice yoga sit and contemplate their navel. I’m not recommending that, but we do need to learn how to rest or enjoy free time without something being scheduled to fill every minute of every day.
What’s the answer?
Do you need a break enough to take advantage of such a time? Do you want to hear about it? How badly do you want that break? Is it enough to trade a day of pay for a day off? Are you sure?
Oddly enough, there is a time expressly made for just that. It’s a time for a person to take a break—designed for all men and women, regardless of how busy their week may be.
You may be thinking, “I’m always behind and can’t get everything done as it is.” If that’s the case, making some time for yourself isn’t going to make that much difference. You’ll still be behind, but you will have had a break—and maybe now you can get more done in the remaining time than you would have otherwise.
Every one of us has 24 hours in our day. We all have seven days in the week, totaling 168 hours. You might say, “And I still don’t have any free time!”
Yet 24 of those 168 hours are intended specifically to give you the break for which you long. They are designed to be a special time for the whole family. Parents think of their working week, but children need a break as well. Many of them won’t slow down long enough to take time for an appropriate meal. If they do, it’s usually to gulp it down and rush off to something else.
Starting at the beginning
Could you handle a time to relax? What would it be worth to you?
Let’s start at the beginning. A supreme Creator exists who made all things, including you and me. He fully understood the mind of man and knew men and women would crowd the week with their own activities. He also knew the tendency of humanity to ignore personal health and welfare in favor of keeping busy.
So He created a day and set it apart as a rest day. He actually commanded that man take a break each week. You can read it for yourself in His instruction book for us, the Bible.
After six days of creating a wonderful world for man to dwell in (as well as creating man himself), we find that God rested from all His work. “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:1-3).
Did He bless it and sanctify it for His own use? The answer is a resounding no. God doesn’t need to rest. This is simply telling us He ceased the work of the physical creation. Why, then, did He set apart the seventh day? He was setting us an example that we need a break from physical activity.
Jesus Christ spelled this out in Mark 2:27-28: “And He said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man , and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.’” He plainly says that the seventh day, also called the Sabbath, was made for man as a time to take a break from our everyday routine as well as a time to worship God.
There is your break. There is a 24-hour period every seven days in which you can renew your energies, both mentally and physically. Stress and overwork is a major health problem today. Hypertension results from never making the time to relax. These 24 hours were made to relieve that problem, among many others. It gives us a specific “break time” every week.
When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments , one of those commandments dealt directly with the Sabbath: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work …” (Exodus 20:8-10).
This is not an idle comment. The day God made for man—the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week—is intended to be acknowledged by man by using the time differently from the normal workday. Most of humanity has ignored this particular commandment down through the ages.
God concerned for His creation
God the Father is a patient and loving individual. He is concerned about the welfare of His creation. He has given humanity time to accept His commands, but eventually He does run out of patience.
Reread Exodus 20:9-10. His instruction is very specific: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORDyour God. In it you shall do no work …”
The question is why? Why is it so important to take a day off from all work, regular and otherwise? If this is a day made for man, why not just do as you please? It is made for man, but it is a special time that has been set aside—hallowed—by God not only to rest but to be reminded of the Creator of all things.
Here is what He told the ancient nation of Israel: “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you’ ” (Exodus 31:13-14).
Then in verse 17 He adds: “It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.”
A blessing waiting for you
This statement was made to the nation God had chosen to be His special people, but it applies to all humanity. Jesus isn’t just the God of the Israelites. He is the Savior of all humanity. That is clearly shown by His comment that “the Sabbath was made for man.” We see it is more than only a day of rest. It also identifies the one keeping it with the Creator God who made it.
In society today, people wear all manner of identifying signs or symbols. Each nation has its own flag. Some wear a jacket, shirt or hat displaying the name of their favorite team, player or political party.
This verse says that keeping the Sabbath is an identifying sign, too. The Sabbath day identifies those who wish to truly honor the Creator. It also says to all who see, “I belong to and worship the God who made all things. My loyalty is to Him above all else.” It also gives a much-needed break every week.
Someone might say, “I’m just not interested in religion.” He or she still needs a break, so why not use the day that was created for that purpose? It is important. The Sabbath is a break for you, and it’s also a time to learn about the Father of mankind.
The truth is there are great blessings in learning to “take a break.” It helps to fight stress and gives the body a chance to recuperate from the toils of the week. The pressure is off.
It gives you an opportunity to sit back and relax, and even to have the chance to watch a beautiful sunset without feeling guilty. It is an opportunity to read to the children or to simply sit and talk with them, tightening the bond of love and respect between a parent and child and their God.
You need a break. You need a time when the pressures of work are set aside. Whether you’re a man, woman or child, you need a chance to take a deep breath and just relax. Now the question is, do you really want a break ? Are you willing to accept the time God made for you to have a break? It is important to you. It is important to identify yourself with the Creator of the universe.
Will you do it? Will you finally learn to “take a break”? It’s in your hands. Do it! “
From: https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/when-do-i-get-a-break
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THE BUSYNESS TRAP
“Are you frazzled by nonstop activities and never-ending pressures? Why is everyone so busy today, and what can we do to reorient our lives?
Taking time out for a heartfelt conversation with a family member, having a leisurely visit with a lonely widow or going out for a long lunch with a friend who needs encouragement all have eternal value. God does not want us to be so busy that we do not have time to reach out to others.
God provides time for rest. Today, downtime is often seen as unproductive. But resting isn’t necessarily unproductive downtime. When we understand the implication of the Sabbath commandment, we see that God actually blesses us with a full day each week designed to keep our lives in balance by maintaining our focus on the most important priorities.
“I’m sooo busy!”
“I have way too much on my plate right now!” “There aren’t enough hours in the day!” We’ve all heard these kinds of comments. We’ve all said them. Busyness, it seems, has become an endemic problem in our modern, fast-paced Western world.
We’ve got career ladders to climb, businesses to keep afloat, children to raise, classes to attend, appointments to keep, emails to answer, meetings to go to, errands to run, housework to do, and on and on. We’re swamped. We’re pressed for time. We frantically rush from one activity to another. There are so many things that need and take our attention, we don’t even stop to think about what our overloaded lifestyles are doing to us.
Being busy simply means having a great deal to do. Defined that way, busyness is not a totally new phenomenon. There have always been those who had a lot of work to do.
But today, as a society, we’ve taken busy to an entirely new level. We’re not just industrious; we’re insanely busy. It’s not only certain segments of society that are working more, but nearly everyone is. We’re not just putting in long work days; we constantly have multiple, even conflicting, demands on our time. Our schedules are chaotic. We feel pulled in too many directions and can’t help but feel frenzied, harried and stressed.
How we got to be so busy
Considering all of our modern conveniences, it’s ironic that we lead such hectic lives. But it’s because technology has allowed us to do our work faster and more efficiently that additional demands have been thrust upon us.
“Nowadays we’re expected to accomplish much more with our time,” says David Levy, Ph.D., professor at the School of Information at the University of Washington. In an attempt to get extra work done, we “multitask, always trying to do two or three things at the same time. So we may eat our fast-food lunch and conduct business calls while we’re driving or checking our email. Rarely do we focus our attention on just one task anymore.”
A big negative to all this multitasking, he adds, is that it is far more intellectually draining than single tasking.
There are other factors at play as well. Mobile devices allow employees to be reached anywhere, anytime. “We can’t get away from work anymore,” says Gabe Ignatow, Ph.D., a sociologist at the University of North Texas who studies social change. “Even when we’re relaxing on the weekends, we’re often bombarded with emails, text messages and calls from the office.”
Other digital distractions—namely, social media—can make us feel even more inundated. “Many people feel like they have to keep up with the endless stream of Facebook, Twitter and other social media posts, so that consumes even more of our time,” Dr. Ignatow adds.
In terms of work, there’s the trend, particularly for managers and professionals, of staying late at the office and going in on weekends to get more done.
“Nowadays there’s this pressure that if we don’t work 50 to 60 hours a week, we’ll get laid off if our company is downsized,” observes Susan Mackey, Ph.D., a psychologist with the Family Institute at Northwestern University.
Continued at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/life/christian-living/the-busyness-trap/
From: Discern January/February 2016 magazine
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U
pdate.
This was the road coming up to my subdivision. Then the water got higher than that, so it was impassable and everyone had to go the long way around Shepherd Hill to avoid it. For a short while that was impossible. But even if you did get out everything was closed, even the Post Office.
I thought that I had missed our mail lady down at our mail boxes, so Hans my neighbor, drove me to take a package to Chris’ mail box. But the mail didn’t run, and the label got wet and illegible. Chris brought it back to me so that I could print a new label. This time I covered it with clear contact paper and clear tape. When the road was clear for a short while, Hans dropped it in the box outside the Post Office, not knowing that they would be closed for several days.
Several people this side of the flooded road came to check on me, and the church people kept in touch by phone. We couldn’t have the church service, but we kept in touch. My van was still in the shop so I couldn’t go around the neighborhood to check on folks. My cell phone decided that it was worn out and quit, too, and sometimes my landline wouldn’t work.
The little foster kittens, just played and played as if nothing was going on with the rain just pelting down past each window!
This is what it looked like coming from the other way. and everyone around here knew not to try to go through it. In 1994 a lady tried it in a pick-up truck, and they found her body in someone’s swimming pool after the waters had receded.
But we can’t complain, as we only lost power for a few minutes and had internet and TV for most of the time. We are so thankful and pray for those who lost so much. That was my situation in the flood of October 1994 when I had over 4 feet of water in my house newly rebuilt after the old one burned down, so my heart goes out to them.
One rare morning when it wasn’t raining, Jay came here and helped me get the fallen pine needles onto the burn pile. 
But we were going to have church this Sabbath, so I halved and baked some green peppers that one of the congregation had brought me. Then I stuffed them with ground lamb, quinoa, topped them with shredded cheddar and a piece of organic tomato. It just had to be popped in the oven for a while to warm up and everyone enjoyed it. They had also brought me 4 boxes of hydroponic butter lettuce which I washed and took to the church so that everyone could have some there and take some home.
The Bible readings were Deut. 1:1-3:22, Isa. 1:1-27, and Acts 9:1-22. The teaching was about ‘Our Warfare is Spiritual’, and to put on the whole armour of God. Eph. 6:10-18.
It was so great to be back with my church friends again, we miss each other when we can’t have the service due to ‘weather days’.
Timon Studler/Unsplash
Yatharth Roy Vibhakar/Unsplash
Paola Chaaya/Unsplash
kaboompics.com
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