Work. Rest. Two commandments of equal importance.

“Work is the reward of work, just as rest is the reward of rest.” –Aviya Kushner in The Grammar of God.

            As I’ve been reading through this wonderful book on Hebrew grammar and the way it informs how a person reads the Bible I’ve been struck by the ideas of language and how it changes our attitudes, our beliefs, and even how we act. This is evident enough in the politically-charged world we see in the media. Words matter. And half the war is in how they are arranged to paint a certain picture.

            But, ultimately, the way things are portrayed on TV, the radio, and the internet is not the only story. As we enter into Advent and eventually Christmas, now is the perfect time to reflect on all the ways we can paint a different picture of the world around us. Now is a great opportunity to think differently. For me, it starts with the quote at the beginning of this article. Work is the reward of work; rest is the reward of rest. To me, this means that even though there are many things outside of my control—wars and refugees and terrorism and the economy and the political issues du jour—none of that out there offers me any reward. That sounds selfish, but what I mean by this is simply: Doing things is what will leave me fulfilled. This can be work done for me and for my family, and it can also be work done for somebody else who I don’t know as well or at all. It’s the work itself that is the reward, because that’s what we were created to do.

            But there’s also a second part of this that some of us forget: rest is the reward of rest. It’s easy to think that work is where all positive contributions happen, but I think this is not at all the case. I believe there is a very good reason that God commanded rest (Sabbath)—right alongside not killing and not stealing and all of that business. Rest is reward to you and also where we are primed to work again; it’s where we are reset and reminded that work is actually a reward; not tedium, not pointless, but it all serves the good of our fellow friends and neighbors.

            God calls us to be both: workers and resters. Most importantly, God beckons us to do both well. Good work is easy to define. We know what a well-made chair looks like and what a poorly made chair looks like. Rest is harder to wrap our heads around. It’s not merely staying in bed all day and watching Netflix. I mean, maybe it could be, but also maybe not. I also wonder what effective Sabbath looks like, and this is something I battle again and again.

            Once, when I was playing chess at a park in the Twin Cities with an Orthodox Jewish man we got on the subject of how I can play chess on weekends. We were talking about Sabbath and the difference between the Christian understanding of Sabbath and the Orthodox Jewish understanding. He could play chess on Sabbath, but he could not record his moves; that would be considered “work.” I admitted that Christians have mostly fudged the Sabbath laws, and essentially negated the work criteria from it. Sabbath seems like a suggestion—not a law—to most Christians.

            But I do think this is taking Sabbath too lightly. Part of me wants to not drive or pick up the phone or even flip on a light one day a week. I think that would be a hugely beneficial practice. And yet, I also think there are different rules that could be followed that could be equally enlightening. I wonder if the spirit of the law begs us to make our own considerations for rest so that we might have an authentic Sabbath for each of us.

            I do know that doing the same thing at home that a person does at work and calling that a “day off” is less than helpful. We have an overworking problem, but we also have an underworking problem. In short, I just think we’re out of balance. And it doesn’t seem to matter if you’re retired, or in the middle of your working life, or if you’re still a student and haven’t yet entered the work force. All of us have troubles with balance.

            This is the time of the year to reflect on that. Find rest that is its own reward. Discover work that is its own reward. This goes beyond work that you find meaningful. It can be work that you find dull but still take pleasure in the results. It can be hard work, or relatively easy work. It does not matter. The same goes for rest. There is hard rest and easy rest. Rest that engages the world or flees from it. Rest that recharges and rest that exhausts. Learn to know the difference. Examine your life. That’s not a suggestion; it’s a commandment.