RELAXING AND BEING

"Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless." Calvin & Hobbes

Although as a pastor, I work weekends, I have to agree with the eminent philosopher Calvin on at least one level. People need to learn to relax. They need to allow themselves to enjoy what Ken Prunty used to describe as freescence--permitting yourself to do what the rest of the world might consider unnecessary or frivolous. Our wholeness as persons is enhanced when our lives are more than obligation. Tim Hansel has another way of saying it, "People are human beings, not human doings."

I am always reminded that in the Genesis account of creation, God did not work for seven days. He did all that was necessary in six days and on the seventh day He rested. It is in the design of our Creator for us to take time out to rest, refresh, and renew. Relentless activity, particularly relentless work goes against what it means to be created in the image of God.

People seem obsessed with activity and take far too much self-worth from busyness. I know in a world shaped by the Protestant work ethic, and the secular performance culture - that no one wants to be a slacker. Yet as my friend Ed Rosenberry once said in an ordination sermon, "Whether you rust out or burn out ... out is out."

One of the reasons that Christians practice Sabbath is to honor the wisdom of our Designer. Although many of us make a point of worshiping God as a community on that day, we do so by choice. Marva Dawn calls worship "a royal waste of time." Waste equals pointless to a person who does not have a relationship with God, yet we recognize that what others consider pointless actually frees us because we are being who we are- "People who rest in God's grace." We do not live by the creed of the world that says that weekends are for working at your play or getting in more hours of work so we can have more things. "Come unto me all who are burden and weighed down," says Jesus, "and I will give you rest."

I once was knocked down by burnout. A friend sent me to his lake cottage to recover. It took me several days to get past the guilt of not working and being "productive." But laying in a hammock with no schedule, no obligations, and no particular place to go, I found myself experiencing the beauty sketched in the clouds of the blue sky above. I felt the refreshment of breathing easily. I started experiencing the peacefulness that ultimately would restore me to a life of fulfilling freedom instead of destructive obligations. I slowed down and let God remind who I was instead of trying to simply maintain who I had become.

But that road to wholeness began with the freedom to be pointless.