According to the authors of a controversial book entitled Time for Life, published in 1997, the average North American has more free time today than at any time since 1965. Two time management experts studied the daily routines of North Americans over the past thirty years to reach their surprising conclusion, which says that our leisure time has increased almost five hours per week in the last three decades. However, what they also discovered in their research was that most people feel more rushed today than ever before. Their conclusion? More leisure time has actually accelerated rather than slowed the pace of life.

Rest – something that we long for, yet for many it remains an elusive commodity. The Bible devotes significant emphasis to the theme of rest. In fact, one of the most prominent and important commandments in Scripture revolves around the concept of rest, namely the commandment related to the observance of the Sabbath. Above all else, the children of Israel were to observe the Sabbath. The implication: rest is something which is important for us as individuals, important enough that God chose to give clear and specific instructions to his people regarding it.

Philip Melancthon, one of the great Reformation theologians, once said to his friend Martin Luther, “This day you and I will discuss the governance of the universe.” What Luther said in response was unexpected: “This day you and I will go fishing and leave the governance of the universe to God.” Luther understood the reality that there are times in each of our lives when we need to push the bigger issues of life aside and relax, knowing that the world’s not going to end if we do.

But what does it mean to enter into the kind of rest that God envisioned when he instituted the commandment related to the observance of the Sabbath? How do we know when we are beginning to more fully experience that kind of rest?

The writer to the Hebrews understood something of rest and expressed it quite clearly in the following verses: “God’s promise of entering his place of rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to get there. For this Good News – that God has prepared a place of rest – has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t believe what God told them…So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who enter into God’s rest will find rest from their labors, just as God rested after creating the world. Let us do our best to enter that place of rest.” (Hebrews 4:1-2, 9-10, New Living Translation)

God has designed us as creatures who need to take time out of our schedules to be refreshed and renewed. Recognizing our need for rest, God made provision for that rest, promising us that one day we will be able to experience freedom from all the pressures and challenges of life. One day we will be able to enter into an experience of rest that knows no end.

Not only did God design us as creatures who need rest, God modeled rest for us. Having completed his creative activity in six days, God rested on the seventh. Jesus followed a similar pattern, taking time for rest and refreshment after each major ministry involvement. Having promised us rest, modeled rest for us, God then commanded us to rest – to take time to out of our busy lives to reflect on issues of ultimate importance – thus the institution of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a time for the worship of God, for reflecting on our absolute and complete dependence upon God. It was a time to allow divine priorities to reshape and refocus human priorities, to put work, rest, and the pursuit of a spiritual center all in a proper perspective.

According to a Greek legend, in ancient Athens a man noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys. He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity. Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and placing it on the ground. Then he said to the critical Athenian, “Now, answer the riddle, if you can. Tell us what the unstrung bows implies.” The man looked at it for several moments but had no idea what point Aesop was trying to make. Aesop explained, “If you keep a bow always bent, it will break eventually; but if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it.”

We will be at our best when we have taken time to loosen the bow, when we have taken the time to rest and be refreshed, when we have taken the time to focus on the source of our being, God, our creator and friend. We will be at our best when we have taken time to allow the spiritual center of our being, our relationship with God, to be the main priority in our busy lives. Perhaps it’s time that we regain a place for weekly spiritual retreat and rest. Perhaps then we will find rest in the hectic pace of life.