Beware of those unwelcome visitors around this time in January

Recently I read an interesting study which found that if your were depressed before your annual holiday, these symptoms will return within ten days after you start working again. Even if you do not suffer depression during your well-earned rest, if you were privileged enough to go away during the December holidays, would be over and done with within three weeks. Burnout, tiredness, anxiety, lack of energy, etc., will soon make an unwelcome return around this time. Beware! They will reappear. They will jump out of November 2011’s closets and haunt you all over again.

Is there a solution? YES! It begins with the realization that rest is not just about going away on a holiday. Holidays are important too. But regular sabbaths are what we all need. God created us as human beings. That’s why we get tired. We aren’t robots or machines that can, should or must work around the clock 365 days a year. That’s why God built in a weekly sabbath; a tools-down and time-out day of rest. Unfortunately the Sabbath all too soon turned into a day of “don’t” and “not allowed” restrictions in Israel. It became a superficial religious day filled to the brim with strict laws and commandments. That’s why Hebrews 4 tells us that Israel never really kept the Sabbath and that the true Sabbath rest still awaits God’s people.

Sabbath was created for man and not vice versa, as Jesus tells us in Matthew 12. We need rest on a weekly basis. We need to interrupt our hectic schedules to hear God’s voice properly. The only answer to burnout and fatigue is a Sabbath once a week. Turn off your cellphone and Internet on that day. Make time to enjoy the presence of your loved ones. Read a good book. Take long walks. Watch the sunrise and sunset. Go to church. It will really change your life in twenty twelve!

Return from Real rest comes through a Sabbath once a week to the echurch blog

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