So if you take a Sabbath - just to do it; we'll be depressed, because we miss the rush. When we take a Sabbath for the reason God wants us to - it saves our lives.
Let me just give you a couple of definitions, Hebraically, of the Sabbath - the principle of Sabbath.
1) The Sabbath was a day for you to get the energy you need, for the other six days. That's what it was meant for. It activates the six and one rhythm that God built into creation.
2) The Sabbath was a day for God to mend, and put us back together, that which was broken.
God instituted a time (one day in seven) that was just for Him and His bride. Remember the whole thing was about a wedding? God's way of keeping His marriage together was: one day in seven; it's just you and your spouse, you and your bridegroom. Seven times a year; and one day in seven - those were the festivals. That was how God kept His bride strong.
It was one day in seven that you could come to God, and say: God, the last six days produced this much brokenness in my life. Fix me, so that I don't go into the next six days, and get more and more broken.
It was a day of complete honesty with God - openness, no hiding anything; because you can't get healed if you're hiding something. So it was the day that you could come and say: God, in the last six days, I took this many bumps.
This person said this to me, and it angered me; my father, he's struggling with this, and it makes me angry. My co-worker said this to me, and it hurt me. My child did this - listen, this is broken. These are my broken pieces. I give them to You. Please put me back together. It was a day of complete honesty with God.
I love this definition, the Hebrew boys would say this: Dad, why is this day ‘unlike any other’? So Sabbath was a day ‘unlike any other’. Do you have one day in seven, which is unlike the other seven days? If you do, how is it different?
Let's get right down to the nitty-gritty. What day of the week, do you ‘not check your email’? What day of the week, do you ‘put your list away’? What day of the week, can I not ‘get in touch’ with you? What day of the week, do chores ‘not matter’ for that day?
Sabbath was a day that you reminded yourself: He is God, and you are not. It was a day where you pretended like your work was done, even if it isn't.
Sabbath was a day where you were freed from the slave driver of ‘things to do’.
If you’ve never tried it, I won't like you any more or any less; neither will God. I'm just saying: it'll save your life.
If you ever try it, you would not believe how addicted we are to our lists of things to do; to the internet; to feeling like we're needed.
There's something so healthy about one day in seven, that reminds us that: He is God, and we are not, and the world will still keep going around, even if my little list doesn't get done.
There's so much pressure on us, when we don't see it that way; because the only other way to see it, is: if my list doesn't get done, then this won't, and this won't… Then we get into the worries of this life, and the deceitfulness of wealth - which chokes the word out of our life.
Sabbath is a way to live differently, to live differently for one day - just one day - to remind yourself that God's in charge, and you're not; and this whole thing's going to be okay, because He's God, and we're not. To live differently, to live a different way, is counter-productive.
Ecclesiastes 3 says: “To everything there's a season, there's a time; there's time to be born, a time to die”, a time to preach, a time to watch Rambo. There's a time to pray, and a time to play golf. There's a time to counsel, and a time to fish - if that's your thing.