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The Long Weekend
This past weekend was the first long weekend of the summer season. Commonly known as May 2-4, the official holiday is Victoria Day, a statutory holiday in celebration of the birthday of Queen Victoria. This past weekend my family and I 
joined the mass exodus from the city that marks every long weekend, as we rushed to the cottage to escape the hustle and bustle of suburban living. For any of us who live in the GTA in particular, we know that it is not just hyperbole when we call it an exodus! I have been thinking about this phenomenon. What makes it so widespread and so deeply rooted in our culture. I am not much of a sociologist but there are two thoughts I had. Firstly, in Canada there is snow...I know...that is obvious but it does have a profound impact on life and culture. When a large chunk of the year is cold, dark and dreary and we have to spend so much of it indoors, when the good weather comes we want to take every opportunity to relish it! Thus, when a long weekend comes, we flee to lakes and beaches and fun in the sun. The second thing I find myself thinking about is the need for rest. Life is busy, stressful and often overwhelming. The opportunity that a long weekend presents to escape for a bit is just too good to pass up, and thus we flee from life, work, home and all the stress that comes with it for a chance to rest. Rest is a good thing, and more than just the occasional long weekend, needs to be an intentional part of the regular schedule of life. I wonder if long weekends are so popular and the traffic heading north so thick, because people have not made rest a part of there weekly priorities. It is interesting to note that God modelled a day of rest for us in the very beginning taking six days to create and the seventh to rest. It came to be called the Sabbath, and became a part of the Ten Commandments. I know that even in the church there is debate about the need for a Sabbath, that if we are no longer under the law then we no longer need to keep a Sabbath. Jesus would come under criticism from the religious authorities for healing and doing other things on the Sabbath that were considered to be breaking the command. I think, however, that Jesus was criticizing the legalistic interpretation of how to keep a Sabbath, that ironically made it even more work and a greater burden as opposed to restful. It is telling that He did not eliminate the Sabbath but rather stated that Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). God modelled it at creation (before the fall or the law) and Jesus affirmed it for us, rest is a good thing. I 
would never give a legalistic prescription of what it must look like, and it might look different for different people. I think it is very much worth while, however, considering which days we have off and how it is that we use them. Many of us have days off, but do we use them to rest. Do we do things that we find restful, rejuvenating and spiritually uplifting? I think that this is a good question for each of us to ask ourselves, and then depending on our answer, put some specific things in place to ensure that we get the rest we need. Long weekends may be a significant part, but hopefully they are not the full extent!
joined the mass exodus from the city that marks every long weekend, as we rushed to the cottage to escape the hustle and bustle of suburban living. For any of us who live in the GTA in particular, we know that it is not just hyperbole when we call it an exodus! I have been thinking about this phenomenon. What makes it so widespread and so deeply rooted in our culture. I am not much of a sociologist but there are two thoughts I had. Firstly, in Canada there is snow...I know...that is obvious but it does have a profound impact on life and culture. When a large chunk of the year is cold, dark and dreary and we have to spend so much of it indoors, when the good weather comes we want to take every opportunity to relish it! Thus, when a long weekend comes, we flee to lakes and beaches and fun in the sun. The second thing I find myself thinking about is the need for rest. Life is busy, stressful and often overwhelming. The opportunity that a long weekend presents to escape for a bit is just too good to pass up, and thus we flee from life, work, home and all the stress that comes with it for a chance to rest. Rest is a good thing, and more than just the occasional long weekend, needs to be an intentional part of the regular schedule of life. I wonder if long weekends are so popular and the traffic heading north so thick, because people have not made rest a part of there weekly priorities. It is interesting to note that God modelled a day of rest for us in the very beginning taking six days to create and the seventh to rest. It came to be called the Sabbath, and became a part of the Ten Commandments. I know that even in the church there is debate about the need for a Sabbath, that if we are no longer under the law then we no longer need to keep a Sabbath. Jesus would come under criticism from the religious authorities for healing and doing other things on the Sabbath that were considered to be breaking the command. I think, however, that Jesus was criticizing the legalistic interpretation of how to keep a Sabbath, that ironically made it even more work and a greater burden as opposed to restful. It is telling that He did not eliminate the Sabbath but rather stated that Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). God modelled it at creation (before the fall or the law) and Jesus affirmed it for us, rest is a good thing. I 
would never give a legalistic prescription of what it must look like, and it might look different for different people. I think it is very much worth while, however, considering which days we have off and how it is that we use them. Many of us have days off, but do we use them to rest. Do we do things that we find restful, rejuvenating and spiritually uplifting? I think that this is a good question for each of us to ask ourselves, and then depending on our answer, put some specific things in place to ensure that we get the rest we need. Long weekends may be a significant part, but hopefully they are not the full extent!
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