Radical Rest

Besides emotionally-intensive pre-service training (2 months of language, culture, and teacher-training), most of my time so far in Peace Corps Armenia has been spent observing, learning, having coffee, building relationships, and getting to know myself better.  Now that I feel integrated and fairly settled in my new community, however, I’ve become acutely aware of how I can help fill its needs.  

So the ideas begin to flow.  And the commitments start to snowball.  And I want to do everything but don’t have enough time.  And all along, I sense the little rational people in my head red-flagging me, warning me of self-destruction. 

Evidence that I am practicing the Sabbath today,
and yes – my Bible is duct-taped so that it won't fall apart

‘Caution,’ they tell me. ‘Every time you enter this hyper-productivity phase, you tend to spiral out of control until you reach a breaking point for which your dad usually has to pep-talk and console you through.’

But alas, not this time.  Thankfully, I’ve been rescued from my tendency to overload by rediscovering an age-old tradition that receives little attention or reverance in a fast-paced and heavily fragmented modern society:  The Holy Sabbath. 

The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word that means “to cease, to stop working.” It refers to doing nothing work-related for a 24-hr period each week. It’s a tradition that challenges us to prepare ourselves for the work of doing nothing throughout the whole week; it’s a challenge to spend time with God for a day instead of always doing for God.

“We imitate God by stopping our work and resting,” writes Peter Scazzero in Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.  God worked, he says, then He rested.  We are called to do the same.  

I’ve been practicing the “Sabbath” tradition for three weeks now, and it has already had an enormous impact on my mental health and my ability to manage stress.  It gives me something guilt-free to look forward to each week and provides a rhythym to my life that balances work and play.

For my Sabbath day (which happens to be on a Sunday, and for which I spend a lot of time preparing on Saturday), I spend a whole 24 hours doing what I love to do and spending time in the spirit.  I read, write, learn, play, meditate, pray, hang out with people I love, exercise, watch movies, plan things to look forward to, and just dwell a little in the quiet of the calm.  

There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence . . . activism and overwork.  The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence.  To allow  oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence . . . it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful. - Thomas Merton

Everyone will approach the Sabbath day differently.  We should adjust, modify, and de-legalize the concept of the Sabbath so that it best suits our personalities/religious preferences, but for me the most important aspect of respecting this tradition is a call to trust.  I need to trust that God will take care of me and the world around me if I decide to just stop for a day.

Stopping reverses the mentality that drives most of our modern lives: “don’t just stand there, do something.”  Stopping challenges us once a week to say, instead:

Don’t just do something. Stand there.  

Weekly Grape:  Do I take time each week to rest and rejuvinate?