Day 114: Reclaiming Sundays

When I was in Physical Therapy school, one of my classmates was Jewish as was her fiance, who was a law student.  He was more Orthodox than she was, and she was telling us one day about how seriously he took the call to rest on the Sabbath.  When the Sabbath rolled around, he was very serious about resting, in fact, he would not even study on that day.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.  And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.  So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation."  Genesis 2:1-3

While most Christians have adopted the "8th day", or Sunday as the day of rest in honor of Christ's resurrection, there is no doubt that for a long time, we also took seriously the command to keep the Sabbath holy, as we were instructed in the Ten Commandments:

"Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work..." Deuteronomy 5:12-14a

It was not that long ago that stores were closed on Sundays, and Sunday dinner spent with family was a given.  For many families, going to church together was part of that day as well.  But our worlds have gotten busier and busier.  Sundays are about sporting events, running around, doing errands.  And we forget to go to church, dinner is done on the run and we fall into bed exhausted on our "day of rest".

What's happened?  A lot of things really, society has become more secularized (especially in my part of the country) and our lives are bombarded with schedules and commitments.  People live busier than ever, attached to their phones, myself included, and overwhelmed with commitments, feeling like thwilley are being pulled in fifty directions at once.

So in part of my quest to live more Holystically this year, I am trying to reclaim my Sundays.  I know that with my service in LifeTeen part of my Sunday will be booked, but my time before that can and should be  time of rest.  That means prepping all of my teachings for Life Nights before Sunday so I don't have to worry about them.  That means keeping up with my laundry during the week so that I don't feel like I have to do four loads on Sunday because I have nothing to wear to work on Monday.  That means carefully tracking bills due so I don't have to rush around paying things and organizing my desk because I took care of it on Saturday.  Sunday rest means attention to what needs to be done during the week so it does not become a dump day.

Instead it can be a day for prayer and journaling, a day for reading, a day for spending time rejoicing with family and friends.  A day to give back to the Lord in thanksgiving for the many days He has given to us.

What do you say?  Are you ready to reclaim Sundays?