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In this insight we come to the fifth and final sector of the inner life that Gordon MacDonald discusses in his book, Ordering Your Private World. He refers to it as the "restoration sector" - the one that calls us to enjoy Sabbath peace. "If my private world is in order," he writes, "it will be because I have chosen to press Sabbath peace into the rush and routine of my daily life in order to find the rest God prescribed for himself and all of humanity" (p. 160).
MacDonald was inspired to make Sabbath rest a regular part of his life by the testimony of the famous British Parliamentarian and social reformer William Wilberforce. Wilberforce's life was a busy one, so busy that he could easily have been exhausted and crushed by its demands. But, one of his biographers wrote, "Sunday brought the cure. For there came a regular time in Wilberforce's private world every week when he rested" (p. 162).
Reflecting on this, Gordon MacDonald writes, "Wilberforce had discovered that a person who established a block of time for Sabbath rest on a regular basis is most likely to keep all of life in proper perspective and remain free from burnout and breakdown" (p. 162).
The principle of rest, he goes on to say, is an essential part of God's design for his creation. "God subjected creation to a rhythm of rest and work that he revealed by observing the rhythm himself, as a precedent for everyone else. In this way, he showed us a key to order in our private worlds" (pp. 163-4). Rest was not intended as a luxury, in God's scheme of things, but a necessity. And part of the reason for that is that "Sabbath rest penetrates to the deepest levels of fatigue in the inner, private world" (p. 164).
MacDonald is quick to point out that the rest he has in mind is not the same as leisure or recreation. He finds it intriguing that a generation so given to leisure (as ours is) should also be so fatigued. This, he argue, is because Sabbath rest is not the same as leisure. "Leisure and amusement may be enjoyable, but they are to the private world of the individual like cotton candy [candyfloss] to the digestive system. They provide a momentary lift, but they will not last" (p. 164).
Sabbath rest, by contrast, is deeply restorative. But what is it like? MacDonald encourages us to gain our understanding of it from God's act of resting. "When God rested, he looked upon his work, enjoyed its completed appearance, and then reflected upon its meaning" (p. 165). This shows us, he says, a principle of genuine rest. It involves thoughtful reflection upon what we have done. Resting calls us to look back on our work and to review its nature and meaning. To "rest" in this sense we need to "gaze upon our work and ask questions like: What does my work mean? For whom did I do this work? How well was the work done? Why did I do this? and What results did I expect, and what did I receive?... To put it another way, the rest God instituted was meant first and foremost to cause us to interpret our work, to press meaning into it, to make sure we know to whom it is properly dedicated" (p. 165).
This subject is little written and talked about today, yet one that desperately needs to be considered. With that in mind we will take it up again next week in a final installment in this series of Insights.