Sabbath

Somebody pointed out to me recently that you can't mess with God's commands, including the sabbath command.  So, to put it differently, if you don't take a rest, God will give you a rest, and most often that means you're going to get sick.

Have you experienced this?  I certainly have.  In fact, at the moment I am feeling the first thrilling touches of a brand new cold.  Ick.  I know how this goes -- I can take a rest within the next couple days and get enough sleep (that's been the struggle lately, to be honest) or I can get way sicker, and take involuntary time to be sick.

God's law is not some arbitrary thing that God occasionally enforces.  Rather, God's law functions much more like the law of gravity.  If you choose to walk off tall buildings, it's up to you.  God gave you the commands so that you might live in cooperation with the way he's designed the universe to work, rather than fighting against him all the time.

(Note to Lutheran theologians in the crowd:  I know that this is not the primary function of the law, but it is certainly one way the law works.  And I am not talking about a "third use" argument here -- this is strictly second use stuff, saying that God has set the universe up to work according to certain principles and our lives will be a lot better -- within the church and within society -- if we structure ourselves according to God's basic commands.  So a day of rest is important for everybody.)

Duh.