Fridays are for...

Rest.

Sabbath.

Non-Sunday thru Thursday stuff.

I stink at taking time off. Really. It's one of the things I'm worst at. Honestly, I'm bad at several things, but I am terrible at taking a day off.

And I'm convinced the reasons I'm horrible about doing it are the very reasons God is so insistent about us all taking it.

Sabbath is not just mentioned once or twice tucked away in the minutia of the Torah--Old Testament law. It appears 154 times in the NIV translation. Lest we think it is a "before Jesus" concept, there are 58 references in the New Testament, including Jesus' teaching that Sabbath is a gift for mankind: Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man..." (Mark 2:27)

For me, the lack of ability to receive the gift of Sabbath reveals how far I still have to go in allowing my pride to be sacrificed with Christ (Gal 2:20). To be blunt, I tend to believe that if I take a day off, the world will not function the way it needs to. As if I'm the reason for the world operating ideally--my world, my family's world, my work world, my church world, etc. 

But it isn't my world, is it? I am invited and empowered to be part of building the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of Rod.

And so I battle week to week, month to month, year to year, to take a day off.

Not because I deserve it, but because I don't.

Not because I am not needed, but because I must remember that God is needed.

Not because I can't get everything done on the other six days, but because without a day of Sabbath I am less likely to get it all done, regardless of how much I work.

Maybe your Sabbath will be Monday or Tuesday, Thursday or Friday. I honestly don't think it matters what day we receive the gift of Sabbath from God, but I do think the teaching of scripture is as clear here as with other parts of the Christ-follower's journey: we're better off when we receive God's gifts.

OK. Your turn. Agree? Push back? Argue? GO!