Vacation, Rest, Sabbath

I guess we all need to be rejuvenated regularly. We need new life, and we go about it in different ways.

Vacation is meant to be a cure for being stuck in a rut and tired. Being away from our regular employment and routine can give a new perspective. Vacation often means going away to a different location; sometimes that has the accompanying effect of tiring us physically. That eclipses our rejuvenation.

Rejuvenation is often interwoven with physical rest. When we're tired from a heavy load, sleep and naps and just doing nothing can help us bounce back. I'm afraid that's only a partial, narrow rejuvenation.

The kind of rejuvenation I seek out is more than physical. If I'm well-rested, I don't always have energy! I need to get plugged in better to a power source that can give me continual life. Does that sound like an advertisement for a candy bar or energy drink? What I need is sabbath.

Somehow people got the idea that sabbath has to do with getting physically rested. They point to the establishment of a sabbath day, back in Genesis 2. God created everything in six days, and on the seventh day he rested. Was God so physically drained that he needed a day off to get his strength back?

The sabbath I need, and what I see promoted in the Bible, is a time of taking stock, a time to recenter ourselves on God. If I can get that, I can make it through another week in good fashion.