Deep breaths.
Do you take enough of them every day?
I find my deep breaths in different spots. Perfectly balanced macchiatos. The quiet hours of the morning next to my window. My vibrams pounding into the pavement for mile after mile.
Sometimes I need bigger breaks from life. I need to string several hours together where my e-mail stays closed, my to-do list is silenced, and I set different priorities than I normally have during the week.
Not only does this make me feel good…. It’s BIBLICAL!
Crazy, I know.
When I was eighteen I was introduced to a community that talked about Sabbath. The idea of prioritizing rest and God for one day every week. I had grown up hearing the “keep the Sabbath holy” commandment, but this was something new. It meant more than “go to church on Sundays, because that’s the day to do it.”
I realized it was possible to a pick a day, any day, and dedicate to being refreshed and seeking God more fully. That it was okay to turn off “work” things for a while and change speeds.
I’ve been working on that practice for almost six years now. Trying it out in different contexts has been interesting and challenging. In my most recent move, this passage from Psalm 127 came to my attention:
Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted.
Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good.
It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night,
anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to His loved ones.
I like it so much it’s currently on my desktop background. It reminds me to take a deep breath and focus on who is in control of my life. So many people spend their lives desperately scrambling to survive. I say I believe somebody else is taking care of me: I might as well act like it. Sabbath trains me to let go a little more.
Here’s a twist: Sabbath also teaches me to work harder. I’ve realized it’s really hard for me to enjoy myself if my to-do list is overflowing, especially if I know that overflow is because I’ve been wasting my time. It motivates me to be faithful in my work and get it done efficiently. Then when I have time set aside for God and me other things won’t be crowding Him out.
Recently I’ve been thinking about Sabbath on an even bigger scale. It’s an idea that was actually sparked by this Tedtalk by Stefan Sagmeister. It’s one of my favorites.
He shares a radical idea: most people work from the age of 22 and retire at 65 when it’s more difficult to enjoy a lot of things they want to do. He decided to retire at 70 and spread those extra five years throughout his career. So every seven years he takes a year off from his normal grind and does something else.
I get it. Not everyone can do this. He’s a self-employed designer, and a successful one at that. He can just close up shop and head out, but I think there’s something really healthy about taking some extended breaks and remembering that life is not all about how we earn money.
I’m going to be honest: I really love TEDtalks. If I hear about something from TED, I’m going to give it a little more weight than just a random idea. However when I find an idea that exists on the TED stage and in the Bible, then I try to take it seriously.
(BTW before I’m cast as a heretic, please know I believe the Bible is much more important in how I live my life than TEDtalks. I’m being funny and hyperbolic to help you understand that I really enjoy TEDtalks.)
This idea of taking a year off every seven years? God had it way before Stefan Sagmeister did. I actually happened to read about it right around the most recent time I watched that video.
In Leviticus 25, God tells the Israelites that while they may work the land for six years, every seventh year they should just leave it alone. They shouldn’t plant any crops and they shouldn’t harvest anything.
That’s pretty crazy! When you think about it, this idea sounds about as bad as the idea of just leaving your job every seven years. How will the people survive? Where will the food come from? How can they expect not to starve if they aren’t willing to do any work?
God tells them if they obey there will be enough. He says that what they harvest in the sixth year will be enough to last through seventh year and even into the eighth.
This challenges me. Do I trust God enough to try out what He suggests, even if people could label the behavior as lazy or irresponsible?
I don’t know. I have the advantage of being so young I haven’t hit six years of work yet, but this is something I’m keeping in mind as I look at the future.
I don’t see myself climbing any corporate ladders following this plan, but I don’t think that’s the life I want anyways. We spend so much of our lives seeking things that don’t matter. Our society tends to emphasize certain areas of success above others.
I don’t want to get to the end of my “working years” with a fat bank account and an empty life. I know they’re not antithetical. I’d like to earn enough money that I don’t become a burden on the people around me, and if I have enough that I can share it with others that would be great too.
I think the money turns out a little like my time does. If I am faithful with what I have and use it well, then I will have space in my budget to dedicate my time to growing in other ways than what is considered a traditional career.
In the end is the question that applies to all of us: How will we use our resources?
Will we squander them, wasting them and then desperately grasping to try to make them go farther?
Or will we be good stewards, measuring them out to honor our priorities?
Maybe you don’t believe in God, or that’s not a big priority to you, so the rest sounds decent but you’re just ignoring that part. You can do that, but I know it’s a whole lot easier for me to be diligent and enjoy what I have when I trust that what I need will come from His hand. A lot of Christians have done a disservice by equating faith in God with workaholism and a list of things we will always fall short of.
We do fall short, but God loves us so much that He redeems us. With that He redeems our talents, our resources, our careers: our entire lives. Instead of a rat race to the top He gives us opportunities to just breathe. To discover Him and who He has made us to be.