On the Seventh Day, God Became a Role Model

Abiding in Hope

by

Practicing Faith

I have been reflecting on some words a friend shared with me a couple of years ago. My friend said, “When we fail to rest, we either convince ourselves that the world revolves around us or that the world rests on our shoulders.” These words resonated deeply during a particularly chaotic season of my life. It was during that time, primarily out of necessity, that I began to take rest seriously. I scheduled a monthly retreat day and established boundaries to honor both this retreat and my weekly Sabbath.

Recently, these words have taken on new meaning as I’ve connected with friends, colleagues, family members, and others. I’ve become acutely aware of just how starved it seems we (as a culture) are for rest and renewal. The churchy word that probably best describes this is “sabbath.” If I were to poll random people off the street about what they thought the word Sabbath meant, I could imagine that the top two responses might be “HUH?!?!” and “that just means taking a day off every week.”  The concept of sabbath at its most basic pieces is a call back to the creator God resting on the seventh (“sabbath”) day of creation. Throughout the story, we hear God stopping multiple times and declaring that things are good, and that they are meant to be just as they are. Creation is not said to be complete until after God rested. This seems odd, the birds, animals, plants, even humans are there, but things are not fully right until there is a rhythm of work and rest. On the seventh day, in a very real way, God created rest. Putting the final cherry on the top of the sundae (pun intended) of creation.

As I was thinking about this I reread Genesis 1 and something else stood out to me this time around. It was that on the sixth day God created humanity. In other words, it was as if God created humanity, and the very first thing that humanity saw God do, the VERY NEXT day was rest. In my sanctified imagination, I like to imagine that God knew from the get-go the lesson that we would be most likely to forget. Think about that for a second. The creator of the universe, parent to the original creation, the VERY first thing that God teaches us how to do nothing, and we still managed to forget.

In our modern, fast-paced world, rest often feels like a luxury we cannot afford. We fill our schedules to the brim, convinced that productivity equates to worthiness. There is a sense that we have to get enough done in order to feel like we have somehow earned the right to be able to rest. Genesis reminds us that rest is not an afterthought but a fundamental part of our existence. For many, the stories in Genesis might be seen as symbolic rather than historically accurate. Whether we envision the garden as a literal or metaphorical place, the essence of the Sabbath is a call to reconnect with the divine rhythm of work and rest.

As we are people that are constantly looking for where we might find hope, let us not forget the importance of rest. In the peculiar case that you were looking for external validation or encouragement to rest, you have mine. It is in our moments of stillness that we can truly connect with ourselves, with others, and with God. Through sabbath, we acknowledge that we are not the center of the universe, nor does the world rest solely on our shoulders. I find peace in the reminder that I am part of a larger, divine narrative where rest is a sacred and necessary part of what I am designed to do and maybe you do too.

So put down the device that you are reading this on. Breathe deep knowing the breath of God goes with you everywhere, and rest. May it be so.

The Rev. Lewis Cox serves as associate pastor at Collegiate United Methodist Church in Ames, Iowa (Iowa Annual Conference)