Remember the Rhythm in Life . . .

The Sabbath is the rainbow that gives the week its colour—a day to rest, worship and engage in soul-refreshing activities—says Harley Stanton.

Thomas Friedman, leading New York Times journalist described the current work ethic following the Davos World Economic Forum in these words: “The key to winning in business today is adapt or die, get wired or get killed, work 24 hours a day from everywhere or be left behind.”1

During the forum a panel of experts reviewed the digital Darwinism that seems to be pervading our working lives. With a world full of electronic aids, Richard Cohen said, “I have so many devices now to make my life easier that I need someone just to carry them all around for me.” Towards the end of the forum a leading panel with question time came, and Howard Stringer, chairman of Sony America, stood and said, “Doesn’t anyone here think this sounds like a vision of hell? While we are competing or dying, when will there be time for sex or music or books? Stop the world, I want to get off.”2

A Microsoft researcher, Linda Stone, described our age as one of “continuous partial attention.” There are so many stimuli, so many voices, and so many images competing for our attention that we seem lulled into a sense of dull compliance. It seems as though we either yield or die. Or is there another way? “If being fulfilled is about committing yourself to someone else or some experience, that requires a level of sustained attention,” then this is what we are losing the skills for, because we are constantly scanning the world for opportunities and fear that we might miss out on something better.3

Amid the rush of the digital world, the intrusion of violence and media, of the on-the-go syndrome, we need time to unwind from the anxiety that induces fear, alienation and illness. Jeffery Garten, Dean of the Yale School of Management and author of the book, The Mind of the CEO, said, “Maybe it’s not time for us to adapt or die, but for the technology to adapt or die.”4

Henri Nouwen wrote, “We experience our days as filled with things to do, people to meet, projects to finish, letters to write, calls to make, and appointments to keep. Our lives often seem like overpacked suitcases bursting at the seams. In fact, we are almost always aware of being behind schedule.”

It is not only the work and time involvements, but our preoccupations that are killing us, where we manage to fill our time and place long before we are there. We are absorbed with so much; caught up in so many efforts to make a living we often deprive ourselves of true life. We need time and space in quietness, solitude and reflection to get things in balance. We need time in our lives to find a rhythm for life.
Compared with a century or more ago, modern life involves less physical activity for a great many in our community. A more rural life that often revolved around farming and greater manual labour provided a physical rest at the end of the working day. But with reduced physical activity when we stop work and relax to watch television or a video the effect is an additional detriment to our overworked nervous system.
One of the best ways to overcome stress and anxiety is to engage in vigorous aerobic exercise for 15-30 minutes with the heart rate reaching levels of 60-90 per cent of potential maximum. This is known to produce an anxiety reducing or anxiolytic effect. The problem is the impact usually lasts only from two to five hours.

But beyond the daily impact of work and exercise, I’m drawn to the notion of a weekly reminder of our place in the universe. We’ve become so absorbed by the passions of our lives that we’ve forgotten the essence of time and the ability to take time out. Centuries ago, the psalmist said, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). We’ve become so terribly lost in a world saturated with striving and grasping that we’ve forgotten the Sabbath.

The Sabbath—one day each week to rest, worship, spend time with family and engage in other soul-refreshing activities—is the rainbow that gives the week its colour. It provides a time of reflection from the violence of overwork, the mindless accumulation and the multiplicity of desires and accomplishments we’re caught up in. When we take time to listen to the still, small voice of God, nature and the people around us, we discover a new inner wisdom that makes life and work meaningful and fruitful.

So the wisdom in God’s injunction to “Remember the Sabbath . . .” (Exodus 20:8) isn’t just about a lifestyle; rather, it’s about an opportunity to stop and reflect on life and the fruits of the week that have passed. It gives us time to stop and sing some songs, hear some music, reflect on the beautiful and sacred in life without the interruption of a thousand other voices craving our attention. It’s not just about stopping work for one day, but more deeply seeking to nourish the inner being and to find meaning in what we do for the other days in the week and who we are in our families and community.

Many fail to take the opportunity to shut out the attention-seeking devices in our life, and seek time for refreshing. In recent years the study of the health impact of religious life has received renewed attention.5 The evidence is those with religious commitment experience lower rates of depression, greater wellbeing, higher self-esteem, enhanced satisfaction and ability to adjust in marriage as well as physical health benefits.

The Sabbath is meant as a ritual in our spiritually depleted lives. There we can find time for the impulses of unselfishness and generosity to others in our community, to give something away to another in an unsolicited manner. We can find time when rested and refreshed to re-enter the space and time of our business.

“Sabbath is more than the absence of work,” author Wayne Muller asserts. “It is not just a day off, when we catch up on television or errands. It is the presence of something that arises when we consecrate a period of time to listen to what is most deeply beautiful, nourishing or true. It is time consecrated with our attention, our mindfulness, honouring those quiet forces of grace or spirit that sustain and heal us.”6

It’s like discovering the beauty of a cathedral that has been hidden from view by encroaching vines and forest and taking “a time-out” to replenish the deeper needs of our lives. It’s the restoration of rhythm to our lives.

1. Thomas L Friedman, Longitudes and Attitudes: The world in the age of terrorism, Anchor Books, New York, 2003, page 17.
2. ibid.
3. ibid, page 18.
4. ibid.
5. Harold G Koenig, Is Religion Good for Your Health? Haworth Press, New York, 1997.
6. Wayne Muller, Sabbath Rest: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest, Lion Publishing, Oxford, 1999, page 19.