My watch broke this week. It was new too, so I got replacement very quickly. What drove me nuts was the ongoing hassle of not knowing whether the time was what the watch said it was. When I wasn’t looking it would stop for 10 minutes and then start going again!
I’ve never been the most punctual person as I’m too laid back. However even my sense of equilibrium was knocked out of kilter never knowing that my time was “on time”. In fact it created a degree of stress.
Every now and then I reflect how my life is driven around a schedule. I’ve been trying to remember if there was a period when it wasn’t. I can’t remember one. From the time I wake to the time I go to bed there are things to be done and my watch tells me when. Sadly, if I have too many things on, time, or lack thereof, begins to affect my sleep as I spend the night fruitlessly planning how I’m going to jam everything in.
A few years ago I spent seven days on a silent retreat. Part of the retreat was taking off my watch and re-learning the art of feeling the rhythms of the day. Yes, they do exist. Light tells us when to wake and darkness tells us when to rest. Our bodies know when to eat. Yet in the first couple of days I found myself looking at my wrist to see if it was time for any of these things to occur.
I’m not really the monastic type, so I am in no way suggesting we divest ourselves of our timepieces. What I am aware of is that I don’t retreat from my watch enough.
The Bible speaks of a thing called Sabbath. It’s both familiar and unfamiliar. Certainly we all know what it is – a day off. But that’s not what it is. Sabbath is not a day of entertainment or even recreation; Sabbath is recalibration. A day-off simply means we do something different, but the emphasis is still on “do”. Sabbath is a day to “un-do”. In the Bible it’s a day dedicated to God, a day to rediscover our true selves. Sabbath is the reconstruction of our souls. We do away with time and schedules and concern ourselves with the simple rhythm of being and connecting with our creator.
But Life is not like this really - we have kids. It might have been possible and relevant twenty centuries ago, but it doesn’t work now. Sabbath is simply unrealistic!
The question is, if Sabbath is so unworkable, then why is it so many people love the idea or ideal? Because it isn’t an idea, it was a direct command of God. We’re designed to rest. Just as sleep restores the body, Sabbath restores the soul.
There’s no legalism in this, I think it’s a vital pulse of real human life. And maybe it’s worth experimenting with.
Try it! Take a day, throw your watch away and pray.
Digby Wilkinson © 2008