Days of Rest
Oct 26, 2008
Last week, I was reading K's Cafe, when she wrote about a passage from her daily scripture reading. Quoting from Deuteronomy 5, "on [the Sabbath] you shall not do any work . . . so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do."
There's the important part. The people who work for you should rest as well. And I hate to admit that I was not comforted by those lines. There have been so many days (weeks on end, really) where we never get a day of rest, while those in leadership or management get time off with their families to relax.
Remember, according to God's word, it's the responsibility of the leader to make sure all his (or her) people have a day off. Otherwise, we are still slaves. Worse, we become slaves when we would have willingly given our time and talents. And the people enslaving us, or at the very least not protecting our time, are the same few who claim to be called by Christ to lead us to freedom.
While it's important for each of us, individually, to protect our time and secure our own rest, the people we work for (either in business or in ministry) are responsible NOT to expect or demand our labor while they get much needed time away.
We could add a proverb: Never ask of others what you are not willing to give yourself. Never expect or demand others to violate what God calls Holy, especially not their day off.
