A call to honor the Sabbath -- USA TODAY, July 3, 2006

For all the attention paid this past year to public displays of the Ten Commandments, you'd think people would spend as much energy trying to follow them. When it comes to the Fourth Commandment — "Remember the Sabbath Day" — that's not the case. And pastors like me, far from being role models, are among the worst offenders. After all, we work every Sunday.

The problem with ignoring the Sabbath is that it hurts us as individuals, families and communities. Wayne Muller, a therapist, minister and best-selling author, is convinced that modern life has become a violent enterprise. We make war on our bodies by pushing them beyond their limits, war on our children by failing to give them our time, and war on our communities by failing to be kind and generous and connected to our neighbors. To bring an end to this destruction, we have to establish a healthier balance between work and rest.

Whether religious or not, people know that they need to take a day off in order to maintain their sanity and remain efficient and productive at work. But I'm convinced that downtime is not enough. We need a formal day of rest. A true Sabbath gives us time to refresh and renew ourselves, regain proper perspective and redirect our lives to what is good and true and worthwhile. There is something positive and even creative about allowing ourselves to take a break, as is noted in the Bible when it says God finishes the work of creation on the seventh day ... by resting (Genesis 2:2). Resting is an act of creativity.

Unfortunately, our society rewards hard-driving people who are focused on their work seven days a week, and our technology allows us to be constantly connected to the workplace through computers, cellphones and BlackBerrys.

"Modern culture's time values often seem enslaving and oppressive," says Dennis Olson, professor of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. "Work time seems increasingly to expand and rob us of time with family and friends. Computers and the Internet bombard us with a constant flow of data, messages and information."

And as many Americans are pulling more time at the office, they're spending less time in bed. Average amount of sleep has dropped from nine hours a night in 1910 to seven hours today. The result is that we feel harried and hurried, out of balance, out of sync.

The way it used to be

For much of this country's history, blue laws kept businesses closed on Sundays, forcing Americans to focus on church-going, rest and relaxation. Although many people resented these limitations, these laws did have the beneficial effect of creating a day of rest. But in the past century, and particularly since the 1960s, states have relaxed these rules regulating business on Sunday as our consumer-driven culture has gone into overdrive. What began as a trickle soon became a raging river: Today, almost every mall, theater and restaurant is operating seven days a week. Even in Europe, where church-going has been in decline for years, Sunday has been — until recently — a day in which most businesses were closed, allowing people to spend time with family members and friends.

Given this history, Sabbath-keeping is going to be a countercultural activity, one requiring commitment and creativity. A day of rest does not have to be a Saturday or a Sunday — impossible for pastors and many others — but it should be at least one day out of seven, and qualitatively different from the other six. The key is to break away from work patterns, whether that means hobbies, sports or artistic activities. (Sabbath is related to the Hebrew verb meaning "to cease, stop, interrupt.")

"Spend more time with people in a friendly way, with meals (and) extended conversations, but no talk related to work," advises theologian Marva Dawn, author of Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting.

New York Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez rests by engaging in gardening; for a professional gardener, though, Sabbath-keeping might involve playing baseball. My own practice on Wednesday, my substitute for Sunday, always includes a long run. My thinking becomes unstructured as I jog along a beautiful wooded trail, the stress melting away and solutions to knotty problems popping into my mind. In this activity, I feel close to God. This is my way of remembering the Sabbath day, and keeping it holy.

Perspective on life

There is a communal dimension to rest as well, one that is important for maintaining healthy relationships in our families and communities. My son, who is trying out for his high school cross-country team, often joins me on my runs. This gives us a chance to talk without time pressures or interruptions, far from the demands of work and school. At the end of life, we'll remember and cherish these times — these mini-sabbaticals, if you will — far more than those hours toiling away in the office. As the saying goes, no one ever says from his deathbed, "I wish I had spent more time at the office."

Ironically, we can actually be more productive if we take a break from time to time. Dawn is convinced that what we gain is "a greater eagerness to do our work and a better sense of what that work actually is." We can learn from men and women in the European Union, who work hard but still enjoy an average of five weeks of paid vacation per year. They often remark that they don't "live to work," as we do — instead, they "work to live."

So take a vacation this summer and a Sabbath day throughout the year — whether to honor God, your family or yourself.

Henry G. Brinton is pastor of Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Virginia and author of Balancing Acts.