Bring back the day of rest!
Of course, it’s quite fanciful in this day and age to suggest that we bring back Sunday as a day of rest. Older folk will know what I’m talking about but many of our younger generation probably have no concept of what Sundays were once like.
It’s a stupid notion I know, and it will never happen, but I have to say that I think life would be better overall if we all still observed Sunday as a day of rest. When God created things, he factored in a day of rest and I for one believe he knew what he was doing. Even though God’s design for living is supported by Christians and God-fearing people right across the world, most humans have a less than fearful view of God and have always preferred to make their own rules for living. Today, we live with the consequences of some of those decisions and I think it’s fair to say that trying to live life at the pace we do today, day in day out, without a regular designated rest day is taking its toll.
My wife and I choose to keep Sunday largely as a rest day, a day to relax and take things easy. We both keep busy for different reasons during the week, in my case it’s work, in her case it’s maintaining our home, she is after all the Manager of Domestic Affairs in our home. On Saturday we’ll often keep busy taking care of home front type business - main shopping, mowing lawns etc. and then on Sunday, we take it very easy.
Rest provides time for us to kick back, rest our bodies and minds, process things, plan ahead, think issues through in an orderly and quiet manner. The result of this for me, means I’m not making rash or impulsive decisions that I could regret. I’ve come to enjoy using this time to think about all manner of things, even things that may be months or years away such as what we may want to do when we eventually retire. The alternative to this is making impulsive decisions or decisions that haven’t been given sufficient thought. Wisdom is one of my favourite words and I believe true wisdom only happens when clear and reasonable thinking is applied, the type of thinking that can only happen when someone is relaxed and makes the time to process and think things through with a clear mind.
Call me old-fashioned but I firmly believe that if Sundays were not just another day as they are now, and that they were the day of rest they once were, much of the stress, mental illness, anger, domestic violence, gambling issues and much more would be less prevalent right across our society.
Trying to live life at 100 miles an hour, seven days a week, every week, simply won’t work and anyone who has been doing this for a long period of time will know that what I’m saying is exactly right. Sooner or later, living such a lifestyle will catch up and the consequences may not be pretty or reversible.
We don’t need laws to cause us to use good sense, sometimes simple encouragement is enough. Let me therefore encourage you to factor in a day of rest during each week, if you do, you and those around you will all be better off.