Colleges and high schools have turned into a competitive breeding ground for getting a jump on their peers and that first job. Schools have become performance oriented enclaves for teachers and students alike. In the effort to keep God out of the school, educational systems can also exclude teachings that produce a balanced, well rounded individual. We need to address the importance of leisure and the role it plays in our lives and society. American society has denigrated leisure to the point it is in ingrained in our national consciousness that leisure is lazy….and nothing we hear these days could be further from the truth.
School can teach you many things. One of the best lessons you can ever learn and learn early is… you do NOT work to live, you live to work. This is backwards from the American ethos of make a lot of money and retire early. A lifetime of working is not a curse, but part of our original design. Go back to Genesis (3:16-19) for a refresher. Once man turned his back on God’s original design in the Garden, aka sinned, we were all assigned to work out our remaining days. Women were given childbearing (and a desire for a husband) and men were given the task of working the ground to provide. We were made to toil by the sweat of our brow and the enemy has been trying to use that against us ever since.
Leisure, like work, is a gift from God. Leisure is a means of learning more about Him and drawing closer to Him. In Greek, leisure is the word ‘skole’. In Latin, leisure is ‘scola’, the English word for ‘school’. The word used to designate the place we educate and learn is derived from a word meaning leisure. What are the schools teaching kids about leisure in 2018? Leisure is how and where we stop to contemplate more than compose tomorrow’s ‘to-do’ list. Leisure is when we take the time to hear and see God.
God set the example in Genesis 2:2. ‘..so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.’ God established mankind as an agrarian culture; basically we are farmers. If you aren’t a farmer or if you don’t know a farmer, take my word for it…your work is NEVER done. Therefore, God established a day of rest as a means to remind mankind; “STOP working all the time.” More succinctly, “He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.'” Psalm 46:10.
Many folks choose financial gain or selfish pleasures in their leisure rather than contemplation or communion with the Creator. What does that look like…how many weeks of vacation do you have banked? Also, it’s popular to encourage each other that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. This is a subtle way to say, work hard and crash hard…again, a huge lie. What happens in Vegas (or wherever you go on vacation) reflects what has been happening in your life and can reveal your spiritual state more than anything.
Leisure was originally designed by God as the Sabbath and a day off. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God…” Exodus 20: 9-10. No wonder the world wants you to think leisure is lazy. Leisure is a ticket to drawing closer to God in recognition of His establishing a time of rest. Again, so much of what our culture encourages is in opposition to God. Spiritual warfare folks.
Take the deeper dive and go back to your roots. The next time you meet someone don’t ask them what they do for a living, ask them what they do in their leisure time. Then, really listen. In YOUR leisure time, do you think about work or contemplate greater issues and questions? Do you drink it away or fill it with mindless conversation? Leisure is a mental and spiritual attitude more than it is time away from the daily grind.
The enemy tells a subtle lie that working too much will result in becoming a workaholic with less time for the family or less time for yourself. As always, the devil’s lies sound like a deeper truth but don’t point back to God. The deeper truth is that not having enough leisure time will separate you from God and establish a mindset of confidence and pride in yourself. Be careful not to teach this to your kids under the premise of ‘getting ahead in life’.
Leisure is the means to draw close to God. Therefore, your enemy will fight your leisure time tooth and nail. The enemy will say, ‘Work while you’re young, get ahead’…’you should work and save more for retirement and have your reward then’…’spend your leisure on your phone and keep up with the world’…’blow it out on vacation and get away from everything, you deserve it’. These activities will kill more than your body.
Jesus warned about listening to the devil and being so short sighted. “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” Luke 12:5. Spend some leisure time thinking about eternity and learning to differentiate between the voices you hear.
Memorial Day is the official kickoff for the season of leisure. Don’t spend your time simply getting refreshed from work or for work. Enjoy the true fruit of leisure which lies in worshiping the divine and communing with God. Learn from what your leisure time reveals.