IF THE GO, GO, GO OF LIFE IS WEARING YOU OUT

By REVEREND TONY ZEKVELD

We live in a hectic society. We go, go, go, as if there is no tomorrow. And the next day, repeat.

One day after the next. We are just plain tired and worn out. People have ‘bags’ under their eyes and are simply exhausted.

It may surprise many of us that prior to 1985, Sunday was a day of rest in Canada. Except for works of necessity like policing, nursing or milking cows, people did not work on Sundays.

Businesses and factories were closed. Malls were closed. No shopping. No retail. No groceries. No deliveries. Parking lots were empty. 

The Lord’s Day Act, which made Sunday a day of rest in Canada, was passed in 1906 and stayed in effect until 1985. It was meant to be a day for people to come together for worship at church.

God’s Word, the Bible, teaches us that God rested on the seventh day after six days of creating the heavens and the earth. It was not necessary for God to take six days to create the world, and it wasn’t necessary for God to rest on the seventh day. In so doing, He, in His wisdom, set a pattern for us. The reason that God rested on the seventh day was to teach us of our need to rest one day in seven. 

God is wise. He knows best what we need and what we can handle. Those who try to work seven days without any day of rest soon find that the cost to their bodies and their minds is quite high. We get weak, stressed, and more vulnerable to getting sick. As one author writes, “According to several scientific studies, those who work (including animals) for seven days without rest, produce less over all than those who work for six days and rest for one day”.

Should this surprise us? God made us this way. When the Lord’s Day Act was scrapped in 1985, our society became the worse for it. God gave this one day of rest as a gift to mankind in order to rest and enjoy Him in worship.

What is the way back? The way back is to trust in Jesus for our salvation and find our rest in Him. This is where true rest begins. We will, then, discover that Christ begins to change us and we begin to change the way we live – even in our busy lives.