You take a look at your calendar app and panic. The month is absolutely packed. You see tons of Christmas-related events, from music rehearsals and dress rehearsals to performances and parties. You are doing mental gymnastics trying to figure out how you can balance all of these things and find time to actually shop for your family's gifts. There is a little voice in your head that asks, “Is this what Christmas is really all about?”
Then you spot it. There is an opening in your schedule--one completely open afternoon. But wait! Before you drop in something Christmas-related, let me suggest something--schedule a Sabbath. Take a complete break from anything holiday-related.
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You need to drop [a break] into your schedule and make it happen, or the season will consume you.
You ask yourself, “But isn't a Sabbath the Lord's day and isn't that why we're doing all this Christmas stuff?” Yes, it is a day for the Lord, but it is something more. I have spoken with tech guys from some of the biggest churches in the county. Most of them have told me that they always schedule a break or two during the holidays. You need to drop it into your schedule and make it happen, or the season will consume you. Worse that that, you are mentally missing the whole idea of Advent and our celebration of the coming King. You are missing the Holy Day (the root of holiday).
A Sabbath Primer
To help us understand why we need a Sabbath, let's look at some of the passages related to the practice. The first mention is right up at the front of the Bible in Genesis. After we hear about God's creation process in Chapter 1, we get:
And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. - Genesis 2:2-3
The word for rested is the same as Sabbath. It literally means to “cease from exertion.”
The word for rested is the same as Sabbath. It literally means to “cease from exertion.” It's not to do nothing, but it is to do no work. For a fuller definition you can look in Exodus 20:8-11. It's right there in the Ten Commandments. It does not say anything about what we can and cannot do. It simply says that we are not to work, but rest to the Lord. Yes, even at rest we honor Him.
Notice that God Himself is the one taking a break and we are reminded of that in the Exodus passage. I don't really think it's because God was tired or was getting burnt out. I think it was given more as an example for us.
Listen to how Jesus explained it:
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." - Mark 2:27
Jesus is saying that God, the one who designed us and knows what's best for us, created a time of rest for us. God knows that we will overwork unless we take some time to rest.
During Jesus' time, the religious leaders had all kinds of rules for the day. They had completely twisted up the purpose of the Sabbath. It was work in itself, just keeping track of what you could and could do on the Sabbath. That is why they had a problem with Jesus healing on the Sabbath. They saw it as doing work.
Under Control?
So let's bring this back around to our Holy Day. It is great that we want to honor God by making much of the birth of Jesus. It is important that we use this time to reach people with the Gospel, during the season when they might be ready to receive it. It's not good for us to push ourselves to the point of exhaustion. We can be missing the point of this season as much as those religious leaders.
It comes down to a question of ... what has mastered you? Listen to Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth. They had all kinds of trouble, including how they were going to live out the commands of the Old Testament. In one of his great “bottom line” passages, Paul says:
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. - 1 Corinthians 6:12
The word “dominated” means to be controlled or mastered by something. Is it possible that we're being mastered by Christmas? Only you can answer that. Has this season got you so consumed with activity that it has become drudgery and lacks real worship and celebration? You may need to evaluate what's dominating you.
Has this season got you so consumed with activity that it has become drudgery and lacks real worship and celebration?
If you find it's time to schedule in a Sabbath, take a day, or part of a day, to do nothing holiday-related. Don't even go shopping, because you will be bombarded with holiday decorations and songs. Maybe get out into creation and engage with the God who made it all. Take your Bible with you and reflect on Genesis 1. Keep reading into chapter two and meditate about God at rest. After you've recharged and revived, watch how your Holy Day will change your holiday.
