The harder I work, the behinder I get

By the seventh day God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.  God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation.  Genesis 2:2-3  HCSB

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 to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.  Exodus 20:8-10  HCSB

Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.  Exodus 22:12  HCSB

Do you have a stressful job?  I have noticed that in this day and age, more and more people complain that their employers expect them to do more than is humanly possible in any given amount of time.  My heart goes out to state workers who are often underpaid and overworked.  The work in probation and parole is the kind of work where the more work you do, the more work you generate.  If you really get out there and do your job, you actually create more work for yourself.  This is in an environment when you are already trying to do more than you can possibly do.  It can be very overwhelming.

Now one good thing about my job, was that unlike my friends in blue, I was not required to work weekends and holidays, usually.  There were a few times when something would happen and I would be called out, but normally we were off weekends and holiday.  I worked 4 10 hour days, so in theory I was off Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  It didn’t always work like that.  There were a number of things that had to be done on a deadline, so I often had to work overtime to get these things done by their deadline.  When things would get really far behind, I would often go in on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to get my work caught up.  On Saturday and Sunday, I could get a great deal done because no one was coming into my office and the phones were not ringing.

During this time, I began to realize the importance of having a good solid relationship with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  I had gotten back into church and at least once a month I found myself skipping Sunday School and church to go slave away at my office.  I began to notice that when I would do this on Sunday, my Monday would be a disaster.  If I worked on Sunday, I would come in Monday thinking that with just a couple hours in the office I could get everything done.  However, I would get pulled from the office (Monday was normally my office day) to go assist with a prisoner transport, or I would get sent to cover someone else’s court appearance.  Now I have told you before that I tend to be a slow learner, but I started figuring out that when I worked on Saturday only and went to church on Sunday that I would have a good quiet day on Monday and could get myself as caught up as you ever were in that job.  Hmm, it wasn’t rocket science.

You see God does not mince words about how He expects us to treat the Sabbath.  He expects us to keep it holy.  The only “work” we should be doing is getting ourselves to and from church and paying attention while we are there.

Now I grew up on a dairy farm and I can tell you that the cows need to be milked every day without exception.  I have worked in corrections, my job at the jail required me to work on Sundays.  I have worked at a juvenile shelter facility.  This job also required that I sometimes worked on Sunday.  I understand that there are professions that require employees to work on Sunday.  If you are in the hospital, I am sure that you are grateful that doctors and nurses work on Sunday.  If your house catches on fire, you don’t want to hear the fire department tell you that they will be out on Monday.  And certainly if someone is breaking into your house on Sunday, you don’t want 911 to tell you they will send a police officer out first thing on Monday morning.  So I get it, sometimes there are professions that require us to work on Sundays.

But what I am talking about here are you workaholics that think that you just can’t possibly rest even on Sunday.  I know you are out there because I used to be one of you.  I used to think that if I wasn’t at my office on Sunday then I needed to be catching up on housework or yard work.

The thing I’m trying to help you understand is that if we put God first in our lives, He truly will take care of everything else for us  (Matthew 6:33-34).  When I put God first on Sunday, I have no worries about getting my tasks completed the rest of the week.  When I have a day that seems as though I have more on my “to do” list then what I can possibly do, I pray for God to guard my time and miraculously I get through it.

The bottom line is this, if God could rest one day a week then so can you.  If the Creator of this Universe could stop what He was doing for one day, so can you.

Resting on Sunday is only part of the job, the other is to keep it holy.  Sundays are for attending church and reconnecting with family.  My mother used to always cook a big Sunday dinner for the entire family.  It was the one day a week that we all got together and caught up.  It also helped her to encourage others to attend church because she would always invite them to join us for church and then to come to her house for Sunday dinner.

I have worked on Sunday and learned my lesson about that.  I have also spent Sundays laying on my sofa and watching lifetime.  Now I grew up in a home where if you weren’t running fever you went to church.  Complaining of a headache or stomach ache didn’t cut it.  Actually I can never remember missing church due to illness.  It seemed that as a child, if I got sick it was usually early in the week and I was good to go by Sunday.  I am happy to say that  I have returned to my childhood ways of going to church unless I am really, really sick.  The flu kept me out a couple months ago and every now and then a migraine will keep me home, but I want to be at church on Sunday.  I want to connect with my Christian brothers and sisters in fellowship.  I want to learn more about God’s word.

If you are using your Sundays to work yourself to the bone, take a test.  Take a Sunday off and go to church.  See if your week isn’t much more productive.  It’s just one Sunday, try it.  If you are using your Sundays to recuperate from a long work week and spending Sundays laying on the sofa try going to church and being refreshed.  Once I did that, I realized that I needed my Wednesday night refreshment when I could go on Wednesday nights as well.

Don’t take my word, try it and see for yourself.

Have a great day!