“Conclude the seventh day in holy worship; don’t do any regular work on that day.” Numbers 28:25 (MSG)

It’s funny to think that the concept of a regular day of rest, established thousands of years ago by a nomadic nation wandering in the Sinai desert, continues to this day with our “weekends.”

I know a lot of friends who grew up in families who strictly observed the “sabbath” by doing nothing. Sundays were a day of sitting quietly with your family and doing as little as possible. Some have even related a complex system of rules used to decide whether an activity was appropriate. The idea of wrangling with such mental gymnastics seems like a lot of work in and of itself.

I’ve always thought that rest was a much broader concept than being absolutely still. As a person who sits all week and works on a computer, the act of getting outside and puttering in my lawn, my pitiful flower garden, or on a house project is not work. It’s rest from my sedentary life. Being active and playful in ways unrelated to my daily occupation gives life to my soul and my body which needs to move and to be stimulated by activity other than that which I do too many hours of each week.

Today, I’m looking forward to a weekend of rest, and please don’t misunderstand. I’ll be very active, but these particular activities will bring a large measure of peace to my soul.