Nike+ Sabbath

"The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath" (Mk 2:27, TNIV).

I started running back in April using Nike+ and my iPod. Nike+ is, as I have found, an excellent motivator, and it keeps me running...it keeps me running. After about three weeks of running, the belt on the treadmill slipped one day, and I hurt my knee. It was nothing bad, but it was enough to cause some rather severe pain. This "injury" happened on a Wednesday; I kept running because Nike+ was arranged so that during the week, I run--on Sunday, I rest. So, in the interest of keeping Nike+ happy, I ran. I ran in pain for days. So much so that soon, I could not run at all. I was more concerned with satisfying my Nike+ training program than with my own knee's health. But I should have remembered that Nike+, like the Sabbath, was created for people. Instead of simply wanting to get in shape by any means necessary (including causing myself pain), I should have realized that it was okay to take a day or so to rest.

The same is true about our lives in general. While we rush, rush, rush, we wear ourselves down and forget what we are living for. Practicing Sabbath is an intentional way of making time for God and showing faith that God will take care of the world while we rest.

Jesus' words in Mark 2 are important for understanding how Christians might practice Sabbath. Sabbath is not about how we might win approval from God, but rather it is a way of showing faith and finding rest in God. God does not intend for the Sabbath to be a rigorous weekly exercise. No; the Sabbath is intended to be a day of rest for all of God's creation. Holloway and Lavender say in their book, Living God's Love: An Invitation to Christian Spirituality (Abilene: Leafwood, 2004), that practicing Sabbath "takes great courage and trust to take time to rest in God" in our world where busyness and speed are praised as virtues (112).

As I tried to get in shape with Nike+, I forgot that my goal was to actually get healthy; I was focusing on my training schedule instead of on my own well-being. I think that the same thing happens with our Spiritual lives when we forget to stop and make time to rest and simply "'waste time' with God" (ibid.), trusting God to take care of the matters of life. Sabbath allows us time (be it an hour each day, or a whole day, or a week's retreat, or a combination of all the above) to focus on God, our source of well-being, as we go through life bearing witness to the Kingdom of God.