Issue link: https://discover.cph.org/i/1168725
Rest, 14 Lutheran Life After all this talk about the responsibility and importance of our vocations at home, church, work, and community, we might begin to wonder, Does God care about what I do for fun? YES! He does. There is vocational work for you to do even in your leisure activities. Let's review. How are vocations defined? By our relationships with others. Wherever you find yourself in relation to someone else—in the studio, on the field, or at the coffee shop—God has prepared good works for you to do here! Our leisure activities give us a great opportunity to share God's love as we form meaningful connections and build trusting relationships with those around us. We can model God's love by the way we interact with and respect others. We may also have opportunities to tell friends about God's love when they ask us questions about why we live the way we do and why we treat them with such care. But even if your leisure activities never lead to conversations about Jesus, God still cares about your leisure time. Why? Because God cares about you. And God cares about rest. He cares about rest so much so that He chose to model it for us in His work of creating the world: "And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done." GENESIS 2:2 The almighty, all-powerful God of the universe took time to rest. Certainly, He didn't need to. Our God never grows tired or weary. Yet He rests to model for us what it looks like to take time away from our daily work. Just as God created humans to work, He also created humans to rest. We know part of resting specifically includes taking time to rest in Christ (as we find in the Third Commandment). But rest can also include our leisure activities. You don't need to over-spiritualize your leisure activities in order for God to "approve" of them. You don't need to shy away from heated competition on the field or only create "religious" art for it to be worthy of your time as a Christian. There is freedom is Christ. There is rest in Christ. Part of your vocation as a Christian is enjoying the gifts He's given you, and those around you, by resting.