Honor the Sabbath
by Chris Savage, Guest Reporter
The Ten Commandments are a starting point for most Christians' moral code. They don't cover everything that we should or shouldn't do, but there are few who would disagree that they are valuable to follow. So, what are they? Can you list all of them? I couldn't get all of them either, so I used my good friend, the internet, to refresh my memory: no gods before God, no idols, no naming God in vain, keep Sabbath holy, honor mom and dad, no killing, no cheating (on thy spouse), no stealing, no lying, and no wanting what the other has. We mostly hold up all of these commands, right? Look closer. There is one that most people completely disregard.
We are comfortable not giving any thought or mind to observing the Sabbath. Or if we do, we go to church and call it good. Now I just opened up a whole can of worms. Observing the Sabbath, in different opinions, can be anything from legalistically structuring the day to praying to God throughout the day. I would like to take the view of the Sabbath as simply being a day of rest with God, which is exactly what it was intended for.
On the seventh day, God rested. He knew what He was doing. As college students, we spend our week days working through classes and exhaustion. We fill the rest of our "free" time with random commitments and video games. We hit the end of the week and crash by sleeping in until noon, or later, in the hopes that it will heal us of our sleeping deficiency (pssstt...it doesn't work). Then, we procrastinate and save the largest chunk of our assignments that are due Monday at 8:40 a.m. until Sunday, the day of rest. We may have attended church that morning, but it was in no way restful. Most likely it was just another thing on our schedule that we feel like we should do. By the end of the day, we're spent. In no way are we ready for the long week ahead of us.
By the time that Jesus came on the scene, the Pharisees had worked out a huge list of things that people were required to do to "observe the Sabbath." Multiple times Jesus pointed out the falsities in their codes, and we now know that we are not supposed to be that way. So, where is the in between? How do we keep the Sabbath day holy and not become legalistic about it?
First of all, that isn't our problem right now. Let's begin by working on acknowledging the day as God's and deal with that problem if it comes to the fore. Jesus said that He is the Lord over the Sabbath. This statement does not mean that we are exempt from the day of rest. In fact, it is a commandment given to us so that we will not wear ourselves out.
So, take a break. Take one day out of your week and rest (whether or not you pick Sunday is a moot point). Plan ahead and do some extra homework one day so that you won't have to do any the next. And, instead of doing that paper or stressing over it, take a walk. Read a book. Watch a good movie with some friends. Spend some time with God in whatever way it is that you do that. And don't work. You may scoff at the idea and say it is unreasonable, but just try it for a week. I can guarantee you will feel more in tune with God, rested and ready for the week, and motivated to take on that huge paper you've been putting off. Keep the Sabbath day holy.