My Sabbath For Others

Still wandering in the desert with the Israelites via the Book of Exodus. One thing that caught my eye was in chapter 23.

"For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed."

This is not the original institution of Sabbath, but it sheds some different light on the purpose of rest. It takes into consideration that when I'm in "go mode," there are ripples that go out to those around me creating their own "go response." When I rest, others (and even creation) are given space to rest as well.

So my Sabbath is, in one sense, for others as well as for myself. If I refuse to find a time of rest, I am refusing rest for others as well. What others? The impact is greatest for those closest to me - at home, at work, etc. It lessens as relationships move outward. If on my established day off I am called by work with a matter that keeps me from rest, the caller has not just robbed me, but my family and my friends.

Sabbath is never urgent, so if life is constantly lived by urgency - there will be no rest; for me or those around me.