Bucket List Practice # 7 - Resting

Throughout the month of January I am creating a Bucket List in which I will suggest one New Year’s Practice each day that will give you a taste of living an integrated life for 2011. (By integrated, I mean one in which your faith, your character, your relationships, your responsibilities--all elements of your life--are in agreement.) Each one is meant to be exercised in one day. Please feel free to share about your experience in the comments section below. We will move through four different themes of living an integrated life. The first week January we'll explore practices related to our relationship with God.

Today's practice is resting.  To rest means to stop working!  I'm ashamed that I have to define it, but we are workaholics. One of the best ways to live an integrated life by connecting with God is simply to do nothing.  The narrative in Genesis 1 shows the ultimate "to do" list. Then chapter two describes something remarkable that God did:

 ¹ Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
 ² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

God made the universe, and then he took a break. I'm sure I'd be tired after doing that; I have a hard enough time keeping up with my own non-universe related tasks.  And as hard as we work ourselves, we seldom take a break.  It's interesting, though, because God doesn't actually need rest. But the story says that he blessed that day and made it holy.  Making it holy doesn't mean that you need to read a Bible or go to church all day.  To be holy or sacred in this sense means that it's set apart as a special day to take a load off.  God is giving us permission, and almost insisting, that we take a day off.  It's an example for us that shows how important it is to set aside regular time to relax and recharge.

So, you've worked very hard all these last 6 days with this bucket list. It's day 7. The Boss took a day off, so you should too!