Unproductive (Friday Devotional)

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

- Exodus 20:8-11

Given the shelter-in-place orders handed down by our local governments, a lot of people have found their workday routines suddenly upended. Some are working from home for the first time, trying to figure out how to accomplish their tasks without the resources available at the office. Parents of school-aged children are suddenly homeschoolers doing their best to keep their kids educated while also keeping up with their normal responsibilities. Most seriously, some have been sidelined from work altogether, ordered away from their business because it was deemed “inessential” in our current health crisis.

Simply put, most of us aren’t as productive right now as we’re used to being. We know what needs to be done, but we don’t have the time, energy, or ability to do it. We still value our work, but we can’t do it properly. It’s a frustrating reality, a source of stress for everyone. But in this period of lessened productivity, I can’t help but wonder if God isn’t teaching us a much-needed lesson about where our value lies.

Of all the commands God has given us in the Bible, few are as ignored by modern-day believers as the commandment to keep the Sabbath. For one day each week, God calls us to rest and reflection, to set aside both our business and our household responsibilities and simply be. The Sabbath is not a day for productivity.

And for exactly that reason, few of us keep it. Saturdays are for yard work and Little League and errands. Sundays are for church, yes, but for the faithful they are often so consumed by one church obligation after another that they are far from restful. By the time Monday morning rolls around, Sabbath is little more than an elusive ideal. We simply have too much to do to have time for a Sabbath.

In one sense, our present predicament seems like the worst time for a lesson on Sabbath—after all, we have more to do than ever! But as we struggle together to get it all done, we’re being reminded of a spiritual truth which is anathema to our culture: there’s more to life than productivity. You are more than what you make, more than what you do. Your value does not come from your work, but from the love of the God who created you in His image.

There will be a day soon—if there hasn’t been one already—when you won’t get everything checked off your to-do list. Your toddler will throw a tantrum or your dishwasher will break or your Internet connection won’t meet the requirements for your scheduled Zoom meeting, and you’ll miss your deadline. It will be frustrating, it will be stressful, and your unproductivity will make you feel useless. In that moment, I pray that you’ll remember that the God who blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy cares about more than your work—he cares about you.