The Rest Of God (Mark Buchanan)

I finished this book a while back... so long ago actually that I remember reading it last summer on the shores of the Welland Canal on a Sunday afternoon in July. Here I am 10 months later reflecting on it again and learning from what Mark Buchanan wrote even still.

In his book "The Rest Of God" he states his purpose as:

I want to convince you, in part, that setting apart an entire day, one out of seven, for feasting and resting and worship and play is a gift and not a burden, and neglecting the gift too long will make your soul, like soil never left fallow, hard and dry and spent. (pg 4)

Now no where in the New Testament does Jesus abolish the 10 Commandments. He comes to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17). And in fact, many theologians believe "honoring the Sabbath day and keeping it holy" is something for us as believers today to continue to observe. Not legalistically. Not always on a Saturday (as the Jews) or a Sunday (as the early church), but at least one day a week.

Then Buchanan gives a definition. He says:

A good definition of Sabbath: imitating God so that we stop trying to be God. (pg 87)

I know that there have definitely been times in my life when I've tried to "be God", trying to control things and plan everything. So when I read this next part I was convicted...

We’ve not been still long enough, often enough, to know ourselves, our friends, our family. Our God. Indeed, the worst hallucination busyness conjures is the conviction that I am God. All depends on me. How will the right things happen at the right time if I’m not pushing and pulling and watching and worrying? (pg 61)

Well needless to say the world would continue to go around if you or I weren't here. And God doesn't need us. So really what's stopping us from resting?

Then as a good pastor and teacher Marc Buchanan makes an illustration to other aspects of life.

The root idea of Sabbath is simple as rain falling, basic as breathing. It’s that all living things – and many nonliving things too – thrive only by an ample measure of stillness. A bird flying, never nesting, is soon plummeting. Grass trampled, day after day, scalps down to the hard bone of earth. Fruit constantly inspected bruises, blights. This is true of other things as well: a saw used without relenting – its teeth never filed, its blade never cooled – grows dull and brittle; a motor never shut off gums with residue or fatigues from thinness of oil – it sputters, it stalls, it seizes. Even companionship languishes without seasons of apartness. (pg 60)

Finally he gives a couple pointers and ideas for what should be done and not done on our Sabbath's.

This day, we go in a direction we’re unaccustomed to, unfamiliar with, that the other six days have made to seem unnatural to us. We do this, this traveling in the opposite direction, maybe for no higher reason at first than that God told us to do it. (pg 115)

“To cease from that which is necessary”. This is Sabbath’s golden rule. Stop doing what you ought to do. There are six days to do what you ought. Six days to be caught in the web of economic and political and social necessity. And then one day to take wing. Sabbath is that one day.... Sabbath’s second golden rule, or the other half of the first golden rule is “to embrace that which gives life.” (pg 126-127)

I'm currently enjoying my day of rest and I hope you've had some time like this too :)