Quick, do the math: A bat and a ball cost $1.10. The bat costs one dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
If you came up with 10 cents, you’re in good company. That’s the answer most people come to. It’s intuitive, appealing, but WRONG!
Do the math. If the ball costs 0.10 cents, the bat would be $1.10 ($1 more than the ball), making the total cost at $1.20 (not $1.10). The correct answer is 5 cents for the ball. 0.05 cents + $1.05 = $1.10
If you got the puzzle wrong, don't be discouraged. According to Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, more than 50 percent of students at Harvard, MIT, and Princeton gave the wrong answer. At less selective universities, over 80 percent of students failed the puzzle.
Kahneman notes that solving this puzzle doesn't depend on intelligence as much as it depends on our willingness to slow down, focus intently, and pay attention. (Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2011, pp. 44-45; www.PreachingToday.com)
The same could be said about solving the puzzle of our lives. So many people are feeling overwhelmed, going 210 miles an hour through life, getting so much of it wrong, because they never slow down and pay attention.
Gordon Dahl put it well when he said, “Most middle-class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship. As a result, their meanings and values are distorted. Their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair, and their life-styles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot.”
If all that is true, and I’m afraid it is, then what is the cure? How can we get some perspective on our lives so that they have some meaning and value? How can we learn to slow down and pay attention so that we’re not overwhelmed anymore? How do we find the joy of living again in the midst of our hurried days?
Well, the answer is quite simple, and it’s found in one of the 10 commandments. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 20, Exodus 20, where we have God’s remedy for a hurried, hollow existence.
Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, 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, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (ESV)
Do you want God’s blessing on your harried life? Then the answer is quite simple.
TAKE ONE DAY OFF IN SEVEN.
Stop working one full day every week. Put a day of rest in your weekly schedule.
Now, in the Old Testament context, that day was Saturday, the 7th day of the week. In the New Testament, that day became Sunday, the 1st day of the week, in celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is very clear from the Scriptures that Jesus arose from the dead on the first day of the week. Matthew 28:1 says it was “after the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week.” Literally, it was “after the week at dawn on the first of the week.”
After His resurrection, Jesus established a pattern of meeting with His disciples on the first day of the week on at least four different occasions (Matt. 28:9; Luke 24:18–34; John 20:19–23, 26). And the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the church for the very first time, was also a Sunday, the first day of the week (Acts 2:1; Lev. 23:15-16).
Now, when the believers in the first century began meeting together, they met every day in the temple courts and from house to house (Acts 2:46). But by the end of the book of Acts, we see them coming together to “break bread” on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7), as well as to take up their collections (1 Corinthians 16:2).
During that time, there was a controversy in the early church about the day of worship. Some Jewish believers in Jesus wanted to keep it on Saturday. Some Gentile believers in Jesus were worshipping on Sunday. And the Jewish believers were judging the Gentile believers, accusing them of violating God’s law and not being true believers.
Well, the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, makes it very clear when he writes to a Gentile church, “Let no one pass judgment on you…with regard to…a Sabbath” (Colossians 2:16). In other words, the specific day of worship and rest is NOT the important thing to God.
The important thing is that we DO set aside regular times of worship and rest. As a pastor, Saturday’s and Sunday’s are busy days for me, so I have decided to set aside Monday’s as my “day of rest.” The specific day is not important, but the principle of regular, weekly times of rest is.
You say, “Phil, I don’t have time to take a whole day off every week. I’ve got too much to do. I can’t afford it.” Well, I’d say to you, “You can’t afford NOT to.” If you want to gain real perspective for your life and work, and ultimately be more productive, you can’t afford NOT to take a day off every week. I encourage you. Give it a try over the next few months and see if you don’t…
GAIN PERSPECTIVE as you pattern your life after God Himself. See if you don’t…
Find true meaning to your existence as you focus on God, your Creator and Redeemer. You see, when you take some time off, you have an opportunity to…
Remember that God is your Creator. You remember that God is the one who has put it all together. Verse 11 tells us to cease our labor one day in seven, “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.”
Now, God didn’t rest because He was tired. He’s the omnipotent God! No. He stopped working, because He was done! There is a sense of finality and victory here. God accomplished what He had set out to do, and He wants you to have that same sense of accomplishment every week by patterning your work week after His own.
If you keep going and going and going without ever taking a break, you have no chance to stop and appreciate your work. You have no chance to put it all in perspective. But if you take the time to stop every once in a while, you can celebrate what God has accomplished through you and enjoy life a whole lot more.
Jim Cote, in his book, Man of Influence, talks about the time when he was seven or eight. At that time, his family lived next to a boarded-up school where he and his brothers and sisters took turns pushing the merry-go-round in the playground for their friends. They'd climb on and grab the rails, and they'd run alongside as fast as they could, pushing.
The bigger kids relished the thrill of hanging out beyond the platform to experience maximum G’s. The smaller ones were taught to quit crying by slowly working toward the center pole. The closer you got, the more stability you enjoyed.
“This is an important principle,” Jim Cote says. “The faster your life goes, the more focused you must be on your center if you're to survive and thrive.” And that center should be God, but we often neglect him.
Due to the exhilaration of our ride or sheer panic from its velocity, we hang on for dear life but never catch our breath. It's time we realign our activities around the security of that perfect center, drawing closer to Him. (Jim Cote, Man of Influence, IVP, 2001) You see…
Get away from your hectic life at the circumference every once in a while. Make a conscious effort to move toward your center on a weekly basis. Otherwise, you’ll lose all perspective and end up “flying off the handle,” destroying your life and relationships in the process.
Barbara Brown Taylor says, “Some of us have made an idol of exhaustion. The only time we know we have done enough is when we are running on empty and when the ones we love most are the ones we see the least. When we lie down to sleep at night, we offer our full appointment calendars to God in lieu of prayer, believing that God – who is as busy as we are – will surely understand. (Barbara Brown Taylor, “Divine Subtraction,” The Christian Century, 11-3-99)
No! God is NOT as busy as most of us are. He set the pattern at creation – work six days, rest one. Besides, you and I are not in charge. The universe does NOT revolve around us; it revolves around God, our Creator. He is the one who put it all together and continues to hold it all together.
God is in charge here, so you really can take a break every once in a while. Believe it or not, your world will not fall apart if you stop working for a day. In fact, you’ll find your world coming together a whole lot better as you stop to acknowledge God’s sovereign control in your life every week. That’s what Sabbath keeping is all about – periodic stops to acknowledge God’s sovereign control over His creation. He is in charge, not you or me.
So take a day off every week. Stop working one day in seven. It gives you an opportunity to remember that God is your Sovereign Creator. More than that, it gives you an opportunity to…
Remember that God is your Redeemer, as well. God is your Emancipator, our Liberator. God is the one who sets you free.
In Deuteronomy 5, where the 10 commandments are repeated, it says in verse 15, “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”
The observance of Sabbath was an opportunity for God’s people to remember that God had set them free from slavery, and that’s your opportunity today! When you stop working one day in seven you remember that life is good, that it is not all work and no play. When you periodically cease from your labor, you remember that you are no longer a slave. You remember that God, your Redeemer, has set you free from the tyranny of your slave drivers, whether those drivers be someone else or your own self.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I am my own worst enemy, driving myself into the ground, because I think it all depends on me. Well, it doesn’t depend on me, so I don’t have to live in bondage to that kind of tyranny anymore. God has set me free from all that. He is my creator and redeemer, so I can enjoy some time off every once and a while.
Some time ago, Maria Brunner of Poing, Germany, looked forward to some time behind bars. Her husband was unemployed, so she supported their three young children by cleaning other people's houses.
Even without a job, her husband managed to run up quite a number of unpaid parking tickets. The bill totaled nearly $5,000. Mr. Brunner kept the tickets a secret from his wife, but as the owner of the vehicle, she was responsible. Maria could not pay the fine, and unless her husband came up with the money, she would have to spend three months in jail.
Maria's reaction? “I've had enough of scraping a living for the family,” she said. “As long as I get food and a hot shower every day, I don't mind being sent to jail. I can finally get some rest and relaxation.” She looked forward to the break from her “lazy husband” and “demanding children.”
Police reported that when they went to arrest Maria, “she seemed really happy to see us… and repeatedly thanked us for arresting her.” While most people taken into custody hide their heads in shame, Maria “smiled and waved as she was driven off to jail.” (Family of the Week, www.timesonline.co.uk, 5-15-05)
My friends, you don’t have to go to jail to find some rest and relaxation. You can do it simply by taking a day off every week.
Eugene Peterson says, “We must “quit rushing through the streets long enough to become aware that there is more to life than our little self-help enterprises.” Then he quotes Baron von Hugel who said, “Nothing was ever accomplished in a stampede.”
You can’t keep going and going and going and expect to accomplish anything meaningful in life. So take a day off every week and gain perspective, remembering that God is your Creator and Redeemer. Furthermore, take a day off every week, and…
BE MORE PRODUCTIVE.
Take a day off every week, accomplish more, not less. Take a day off every week, and experience God’s blessings on your life!
Exodus 20:11 says, “The Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” He made it special and unique. God didn’t give you a day off to make you miserable. NO! He gave you a day off, because He knew it would be a blessing to you, a special treat.
It certainly was a blessing to the children of Israel just coming out of Egypt. They were used to slave labor, seven days a week. Now, God says, “Take a day off every week!” It must have been like heavenly music to their ears.
The problem is religious leaders over the years added so many rules and regulations to the Sabbath; it became a burden rather than a joy. By the time you get to Jesus’ day, religious leaders had specified 39 classes of activities that were forbidden on the Sabbath, with six subsidiary prohibitions in each (TDNT). That made 234 rules to follow just on the Sabbath. For example, tying knots in general was forbidden, but not those that could be loosened with one hand. Or a person could not carry enough ink to write two letters of the alphabet (A. B. du Toit, The New Testament Millieu).
The rules and regulations became so ridiculous, that when Jesus and his disciples walked through a wheat field on a Sabbath, the religious leaders complained, because some of the disciples had picked one head of grain each. Jesus countered, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
God made the Sabbath for you and me! He intended it to be a blessing, not a burden, so we don’t want to get legalistic with it all. We don’t need to be adding all kinds of rules and regulations to it.
All God wants you to do is take a break from your regular work each week and do what refreshes and re-creates you. You see, that’s what true recreation is all about. It is a re-creation of your body and your soul after they have been broken down by six days of hard labor. It’s absolutely necessary if you’re going to accomplish all that God has called you to do.
There is an old story about two men who were hired to clear a field of trees. Each one was going to be paid according to the number of trees he cut down.
Bill wanted the day to be profitable, so he grunted and sweated, swinging his axe relentlessly. Ed, on the other hand, seemed to be working about half as fast. He even took a rest and sat off to the side for a few minutes. Bill kept chopping away until every muscle and tendon in his body was screaming.
At the end of the day, Bill was terribly sore, but Ed was smiling and telling jokes. Amazingly, Ed had cut down more trees! Bill said, “I noticed you sitting while I worked without a break. How'd you outwork me?”
Ed smiled. “Did you notice I was sharpening my axe while I was sitting?” (Stand Firm, June 2000, p.13)
We all need a day each week to “sharpen the ax.” We all need some time off so we can strengthen ourselves for the task ahead. It actually makes us more productive, not less. But if we don’t take regular time off, then we only end up doing more harm than good.
In The Twenty Four Hour Society, Martin Moore-Ede says our most notorious industrial accidents in the 20th Century – Exxon Valdez, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl – they all occurred in the middle of the night… In the Challenger space shuttle disaster, key NASA officials made the ill-fated decision to go ahead with the launch after working twenty hours straight and getting only two to three hours of sleep the night before. Their error in judgment cost the lives of seven astronauts and nearly killed the U.S. space program.
We ignore our need for rest and renewal at the peril of others and ourselves. (Martin Moore-Ede, The Twenty Four Hour Society, Circadian Information, 1993)
In 2005, a team in the Netherlands worked with meticulous effort to break the world record for falling dominoes. To accomplish the feat, they needed to set up over four million dominoes.
Their painstaking labor came within inches of destruction when, after a long day of setting up the plastic rectangles, one of the team members left a window open. A sparrow flew in and knocked down approximately 25,000 dominoes.
The reason all the dominoes did not fall is interesting. The organizers placed 750 built-in gaps intermittently throughout the succession of dominoes. The intentional gaps were a safety device, allowing enough space for a domino to fall without knocking over the ones behind it. This way, any accidental domino-knocking would be contained and would not totally devastate their efforts. (Sparrow Nearly Ruins Record for Dominoes, www.news.yahoo.com, 11-14-05)
We too need to put intentional gaps in our labor, so we don’t end up totally devastating our efforts. We need to take weekly breaks, so we don’t end up destroying ourselves and those we love the most in the process.
Take a day off every week, and gain some perspective. Take a day off every week, and be more productive. I like the way Albert Schweitzer once put it, “If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.” So take a day off every week and give your soul a home.
