Rest

BOX SCORE
Element	Current	Std. Range
Hemoglobin	11.8	13-17
Platelets	197	140-375
ANC	3300	1800-8300

"So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation." (Genesis 2:3)

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates." (Exodus 20:8-10. This is the fourth of the Ten Commandments.) 

God is serious about rest. He spent 14% of the week in which He created the universe resting. Not only did He rest, but He blessed the Sabbath day.  Among the synonyms at dictionary.com for "bless" is "exalt." So, we could say that God exalted or elevated the Sabbath (seventh) day. I take this to mean He elevated it above the other six days of the week. Isn't it interesting that all the days of creation, while He was making the complex system that is the universe and creating the amazing living creatures and balancing everything so that it would all run like clockwork, still He "blessed" or "exalted" or "elevated" the day of rest above all of the other days. Not only did He bless that day, but He made it "holy." The Hebrew word rendered "holy" here is kaw-dash' (קָדַשׁ), which means to be set apart or consecrated. 

The Sabbath is obviously a very important day to God. It is so important that He commanded His people to remember it to KEEP it holy. The Sabbath Day is unlike any other day. Now, the Jewish people to whom this commandment was given were originally very jealous about guarding the Sabbath Day. The Jewish leaders of His day harshly criticized Jesus for doing "work" on the Sabbath; stuff like healing people and feeding His disciples. They called these things blasphemy and ultimately used them to have Jesus put to death. 

But Jesus had an ace up His sleeve, and on the third day after He died on a Roman cross, God the Father raised Him from the dead. And that changed history forever. One of the things that changed was that the Jewish followers of Jesus began observing the Sabbath (seventh) day (Saturday) on Sunday, the first day of the week.* That's because Sunday was the day that Christ rose from the dead and founded His church for the purpose of ministering the gospel (good news) to the world; you know the same world about which the Apostle John wrote, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) (That's the good news!)

Many Christians refer to this new and improved "Sabbath" as "The Lord's Day." It obviously isn't the seventh day, and it is the day the Lord rose from the grave to conquer death. Now there is a lot of theology that goes into some of the things I have written, but my point here is the importance of the Day of Rest. 

Okay, Tom, so what does all of this have to do with Red Cells and White Cells and Platelets (Oh! My)? This past weekend, I had a two day break from my chemotherapy injections. It was a welcome respite. In spite of the fact that the injections themselves are virtually painless, the medication, when it begins to do its work, heavily taxes my amazing body (designed and built in prototype on Day 6 of creation; mine is a 1946 model). Although I have been feeling good, I know that my body is working hard to fend off the insult of the drugs, which are destroying the cancer cells and stressing the healthy cells. Having a day (or two) of rest from that battle is good not only for my body, but also for my soul. In fact, that rest may be more important than the treatment that goes on during the week. Hmmm. That sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? Without rest, my body would eventually collapse in exhaustion.

Having grown up in a world where weekends are king, which for many working people means the days to play so hard that going back to work on Monday is a welcome rest from all that recreating, I have a long history of ignoring the importance of a day of rest.  But I am slowly learning that my body needs that rest. As you can see from the Box Score, my ANC took a big leap, and my hemoglobin is up as well. These things naturally happen about this time in the cycle, but without adequate rest, my body would not have as much energy to generate the new blood cells that these statistics represent. 

I have a friend, a very learned man, who told me that he had done some research about the French Revolution. He shared some of what he learned. Among other things, like killing dozens of members of the aristocracy, the revolutionaries were of a mind to completely rework the lifestyle of the French people. One decision they made was to change the work week from seven days to ten days. Instead of working six days and having one day off, as God has ordained, the revolutionaries changed the plan to working nine days and resting one day. That change amounted to a 50% increase in the number of work days and a 30% decrease in the number of days of rest. It sounds like it should give a huge increase in worker productivity, but what happened was that productivity actually declined sharply. It looks to me like God had it right all along! Six days of work, followed by one day of complete rest.

So, whatever your station in life, take time out to rest. By rest I mean relax, let your body cease the frenetic pace of the workaday week, let your mind be refreshed by putting your work aside. If I may be so bold, let your spirit reconnect with your Creator; you know, the One who blessed the Sabbath Day and made it holy! I would lay you a dollar to a doughnut that you will feel better and be more productive and find more joy in your life. I know I do.

 * In fact, it is thought that many of the early Jewish Christians actually "remembered the Sabbath Day to keep it holy" and also celebrated the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday, The Lord's Day. Could we say then that the first century Christians "invented" the weekend? Hmmm.