Now that summer is nearly over, autumn is upon us in North America. Our children are back in school. Department stores are clearing out the swimsuits and shorts from their shelves. Parents are scurrying to buy school supplies. You may have noticed that rush-hour traffic has increased and that local church activities are about to pick up.
Fall is the time television networks showcase their new shows and the football season kicks off. It’s the time the General Conference and its 13 world divisions hold major business sessions during which budgets are voted for next year. It’s a time the pace of life quickens, and the daily treadmill shifts into high gear.
A major reason for life’s frenetic pace is that in today’s urban society we’ve become work-obsessed. In this information age it’s normal for many of us to often work into the evenings and on weekends to keep up with endless deadlines and schedules.
Compounding the issue is the proliferation of technology that bombards us. With laptops, cell phones, iPads, mobile hot spots, and other digital gadgets, busy professionals can review documents online, participate in conference calls, and keep in touch with staff while waiting in airports and train stations. It’s a widely accepted norm that for most executives and professionals, being “off the clock” doesn’t apply.
Another factor adding to our overworked state is economic downturn in North America. As demand for products and services weaken, many administrators are actively looking for ways of doing more with less. As employees are laid off, remaining workers are taking on more duties, pushing up per capita productivity.
Our overachieving, workaholic culture has become so second nature to us that it has invaded our humor and small talk. Consider the following comments gleaned from the Internet.
One not-so-funny result of our work-laden culture is that many people find themselves too busy to maintain a social life, and even vacations are infringed upon. In 2006 Eweek.com reported that 27 percent of the workforce took their laptops, cell phones, and PDAs on vacation. A phenomenon one writer calls “BlackBerry on the beach.”
So many are interrupting their vacations with e-mails, phone calls, and reading reports that the Internal Revenue Service has provided guidelines for writing off a portion of your vacation expenses for tax purposes.
Given today’s rat race, it’s no wonder that God alone knew that humanity needed rest, a time all of us simply lay aside the cares of life and spend quality time with Him.
As we rest in our Creator, our Creator is actually re-creating us. Experts tell us that “rest offers energy for the burned-out, and restoration for the broken. Rest replaces weariness, exhaustion, and fatigue with peace, energy, and hope. Maybe that’s why God showed us how important a whole day of rest could be.”1
Matthew Edlund, an expert on sleep, explains that rest is not just passive, but should be active and goaldirected in four specific ways: physical rest, mental rest, social rest, and spiritual rest.2
In the Sabbath, the day God rested from His Creation, we engage in all the dimensions of rest. In holy worship, fellowship with our family and friends, and refraining from secular thoughts, our minds and bodies will be rejuvenated, and our spirits will be healed.
Jesus freely offers His rest to us as a gift if we would just accept it.
1 Des Cummings, Jr., with Monica Reed, Creation Health Discovery (Florida Hospital Publishing, 2008), p. 27.
2 Matthew Edlund, “The Rejuvenating Power of Rest,” Huffingtonpost.com, Jan. 20, 2010. www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-edlund-md/the-rejuvenating-power-of_b_430021.html.
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Carlos Medley is Online editor of Adventist Review. This article was published September 15, 2011.
