Here is [some] helpful information about how things really work. No one can [remove oppression] nonstop. No one can satisfy the needs of the afflicted 24/7. According to Isaiah, it is as sacred to rest one day a week as it is to loose the bonds of injustice the other six. Honoring the Sabbath is as vital to our health as offering food to the hungry. Small wonder, then, that some of us are ailing.
When did we decide to let the market keep time for us instead of God? With what sick logic did we decide that the world’s drumbeat of drivenness and collapse promised us more than God’s rhythm of hard work and reliable rest? Refraining from work one day a week is not good advice. It is divine command, as vital to the survival of God’s people as refraining from idolatry or murder.
That resting one whole day every week should seem impossible to so many of us is a sign that we have taken a wrong turn somewhere. What bridegroom told us we could leave the Sabbath bride at the altar? What god taught us that rest is a sign of weakness or sloth? Is it because Jesus never rested? “The Sabbath was made for humankind,” he said, “and not humankind for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). But does that erase the Sabbath or does it fortify its importance? Anyone with no time for a wedding clearly has too much to do.

Barbara Brown Taylor, adapted from Always a Guest