“I’m so busy… I just don’t have enough time to complete all my work.” Do you need a break, but doubt you have time for it? The practice of keeping Sabbath helps us to resist the tyranny of too much or too little work. The Exodus (20:8-11) commandment to “remember” the Sabbath is grounded in the story of creation In Deuteronomy (5:12-15) the commandment to “observe” the Sabbath sees to it that no one, not even animals, will work without respite. Sabbath-keeping as a spiritual practice is an attempt to help us resist various forms of enslavement to the commercial, industrial, consumer and work world today, for ourselves and for others. This Sabbath requirement of no work or commerce honours God and God’s centrality in our lives as Christians, and respect human needs. What are good re-creative activities to do on the Sabbath (e.g., worship, play, take a walk, rest, read, spend time with loved ones)? Though we may yearn for Sabbath rest, there are that obstacles keep us from it. Pressures to work and spend. Organized sports. Sundays are no longer protected by custom and law: this has significantly increased the difficulty for Christians to engage in Sabbath-keeping. In what ways can members of a worshiping community help one another step off the treadmill of work-and-spend and into the circle of glad gratitude for the gifts of God? See what the Valparaiso project has to say about this.

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