day 207: Rest Periods

In most states there are labor laws that dictate the rest periods or "breaks" that certain employees must take throughout their work day. If someone is an hourly paid or classified as a non-exempt (means not exempt from overtime regulations)employee they, in most states, are regulated to take a break somewhere in the first half of their day, a lunch break, and a break somewhere in the second half of their day. These regulations originated from the days of assembly line and factory work when someone would be required to stay at their piece of machinery the entire day without a break whatsoever. As if someone in management didn't think that that would catch up with them dome day? Organized labor found an opening to gather support by the rank and file to fight against this and establish laws to mandate something as human as a rest break. These kinds of topics always make me wonder about the relationship between capital and labor and why, since capital is also made up of people, that there is a leaning on labor until a breaking point is reached, until almost an inhumane breaking point is found, and then everyone comes to their senses only through the law or regulation. It is one of those oddities to me of this thing we called work. We are all called to rest at some point. Even God modeled rest on the seventh day after the work of creation was completed. Work is laborious (ala labor). Work wears us down. Work takes a physical and mental toll on each of us. Work adds to us problems that we feel like we cannot solve on our own and places burdens and weights on our shoulders and around our necks. Work can overtake us and push us to a point where we are doing inhumane things to ourselves with lack of sleep, increased stress and red-lined physical capabilities. We then let all of this permeate into the other areas of our lives and before long we are suffering in our relationships with loved ones and also spiritually. We need a rest period. And you know what? God gives it to us. He says in Matthew 11:28: "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Jesus then goes on to say, "Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light." What a cool co-worker God wants to be. He asks us to take a rest period and let Him take over for us. Today you may be readying for a day where you already feel totally burned out, stressed and weighed down, even before the day starts. Try something new today...start the day with a rest period with God. Give Him 30 minutes of your time to refresh you in His word, strengthen you in prayer, and invigorate you with His spirit. See if today that rest period at the start of the day doesn't make a difference later on in how you make it through the day.

Reference: Matthew 11:28 (New Living Testament)