“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” – Mark 2:27
The joke we have all heard – or maybe it’s not a joke – is that no one ever made a death-bed confession wishing he or she had spent more time at the office. Yet, we live in a culture that glorifies busyness whereby we obtain bragging rights for the hours we spend and the sweat we pour into hard work. Indeed, we have come to believe that work is the great virtue above all virtues, thus the more time we spend at work and the harder we go at it the more virtuous we are.
At the same time there’s an old folk proverb that claims idleness to be the devil’s workshop. By not keeping ourselves busy, in other words, we put ourselves at risk of doing something we shouldn’t, things that are mischievous or harmful, and get us into trouble.
I have to admit being guilty of both at various times in my life. The times I have done things I shouldn’t and gotten into trouble, those actions have inevitably hatched in an incubator of idleness. At the other extreme there have been times when I have immersed myself in work to the extent of losing track of time and awareness of the world around me, earning bragging rights about how long and hard I worked. But then I have been brought back to my senses – thanks mostly to wife’s stern reminders – that there are other things of greater importance than spending more time at the office.
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath . . . On it you shall not do any work . . .” (Exodus 20:8-10). Mistakenly viewed as arbitrary, impractical and even irrelevant in today’s high-work-ethic Western society, this fourth of the Ten Commandments instead is meant to be practical, given to us for our own well-being. Its intention is that we take time to rest from our labors, to pause and enjoy our relationships with others and with God, and reflect on Him and all He has provided; for “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” Jesus reminds us, so that our lives will be filled with abundance – rather than regret for spending too much time at the office.