Well this week the Ream of Paper Lent practice is simple: quit working when the sun goes down (or when you get home, for those of you on the night-shift).  Nothing has changed my life more than the laptop.  I’d have to say this wonderful device has allowed me to become as productive off the clock as when I am on it.

It’s a funny thing about technology.  It allows us to maintain unreal levels of productivity or waste as much time as we see fit over the course of a day.  Hey, production is great and addicitng.  Who doesn’t love the accolades and the sense of accomplishment that comes with fulfilling a large task?  Work, you’ll remember, was an integral part of the creation narrative.  God created man and gave him something to do.  That’s why we enjoy doing it, at least some of the time.

God foreknew that we might find ourselves addicted to our own greatness, so he rested.  He probably wasn’t tired from walking about pronouncing things as “good.”  He just took a break and later asserted that his people were to do the same.  Honor the Sabbath, to keep it ______.  (Fill in the blank.)

Holy.  That’s the word he uses, “holy.”  Set apart.  Consecrated.  This day is special.  Jesus even goes so far to say that man was not created for the Sabbath, but Sabbath was created for man.  Man wasn’t created for rest, but a certain amount of holy rest was CREATED for man.  Think about that; rest is a gift.  Which seems to sort of contradict the notion of the modern neo-puritan slogan “I’ll rest when I’m dead.”  Essentially, that means that you have evolved beyond enjoying or needing one of God’s gifts.  When you’ve accomplished that, voila, you no longer need God.

The truth is, you won’t rest when you’re dead.  I mean you will, but nowhere in scripture is the afterlife depicted as “eternal rest.”  It is rather a continuum of the life we’ve procured on earth.  It will include rest, but it will not be rest.  God’s story begins with a garden and concludes with some sort of city that comes down from heaven and invades earth.  In a garden and in a city there is work to be done.  Eternity is God setting creation at peace again, and with peace comes a fair bit of work on the part of the participant.

One will also note, that the idea of Jesus’ 40 days tempted in the wilderness occured outside the realm of his work, be it carpentry, healing multitudes or teaching the scriptures.  We often read of him evading the crowds for a place of solitude.  Rest was important and necessary for God-incarnate.  Maybe because he didn’t have a laptop and an iPhone.

When some kind of rhythm of starting, stopping, producing and resting is established, we’re allowed a greater insight into the nature of God.  One question I ask myself pretty frequently as a parent of young children is, “Are today’s kids better or worse than the kids in my generation or the two generations prior to mine?”  They’re smarter.  They learn things at a quicker rate.  But are they better humans?  I personally do not think so as a general rule (of course there are exceptions, I’m certain your child is included in the exception category).

The obvious corollary is, “why are our kids not as well-adapted as previous generations?”  Sure, we could blame the TV, media, internet, Liberals, Conservatives, educational systems, church education and what-have-you.  Or we could admit that we’ve become addicted to our own productivity, that we’ve stopped unplugging, we’ve never ceased from producing to enjoy the gift of rest and the gift of children.  Our dedication to production has placed our kids in front of the TV for longer periods of time, entrusted them solely to the development afford by educational systems and taught us that other productive professionals should be entrusted with the spiritual development of our kids while at church.

rest and worship here...

Church is no longer a period of rest and worship (seeking and enjoying God’s goodness) for families, but rather a time to “learn and grow,” which I would argue, leads to simple consumption, demanding more production.  Naturally our kids can’t learn the scriptures with

or here, your choice.

their parents, as they have their own language – the language of television broadcasts, so we turn them over to specialists in their language, as we’ve not taught them our language.  Largely because we’ve failed to rest.

So try it out.  Unplug at the end of the day.  Talk to your neighbors and friends.  Build a fire.  Cook dinner.  Eat long meals.  Play games with your kids.  Read the Bible as a family (last night I had to alter the Soddom and Gomorreah story for ages 4-10).  Rest, my friends, is a pure and wonderful gift.