What Happened to Sunday's Post?

No, I didn't forget to post yesterday.  With blogging as my Lenten discipline this year, I took Sunday off as a feast day.  Some people consider this cheating, but, the way I see it, the season of Lent is 40 days long.  The period of time from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday is 46 days long.  There are 6 Sundays between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.  The math is pretty simple from here.  Math aside, however, I think there is a more Biblical reasoning behind taking a day off each week from the Lenten "fast."

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.  For six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work. -Exodus 20:8-10a

That's right, I'm going back to the Ten Commandments, and not that 220 minute long epic with Chuck Heston.  God knew that taking a break from the stresses of our lives is important, yet we all to often neglect to do this.  How often do you take a sabbath day?  I try to take Saturday as my day of rest as often as possible.  While I was still in seminary, I got quite good at this.  Saturday was nothing but sleeping in (relative to when I woke up the rest of the week, anyway), college football, and hanging out with friends.  Of course, I usually paid for that by having to stay up all night on Sunday working on papers due Monday, but that's neither here nor there.

On Ash Wednesday, we were invited to observe a holy Lent.  The fourth commandment reminds us that taking a sabbath day should be part of our holy practices.  If you don't already, I invite you to include taking a sabbath day every week as part of your Lenten discipline.  Take one day each week (it doesn't have to be Saturday or even the same day each week) and stop working.  This may mean doing more work on other days of the week, but I am sure that allowing yourself time to relax will be well worth it.