Why Work? Why Rest?

Second Quarter 2003

Editor's Watch

by James W. Skillen

In a new book that tries to explain the motivation for economic growth (The Spirit of Capitalism, by Liah Greenfeld), the author raises the question about the "rationality" of our western obsession with growth. There was a time, she says, when people assumed that when their basic wants had been satisfied, they would have more time to enjoy life. But instead we now behave as if our wants can never be satisfied. We work harder, consume more, and don't stop to enjoy life. Growth itself becomes the goal. Workaholism becomes honorable. And there is little evidence that this makes us happy.

Another author, Judith Shulevitz, confesses in a recent New York Times Magazine article (3/2/03) that every weekend she used to sink into a dark, unresponsive, and morose mood, which turned out to be a disorder of suffering from the lack of a sabbath. In "Bring Back the Sabbath," Shulevitz comments that "the one day in seven dedicated to rest by divine command, has become the holiday Americans are most likely never to take." We Americans "no longer cherish obedience as a virtue" (especially to divine commands). "We will no longer put up with being told how to dispose of our free time." Status today is pegged to overachievement: "we can't help admiring workaholics."

Strange, isn't it, that two contemporary authors, not trying in any way to revive "religion," are raising fundamental questions about modernism's religious obsession with economic growth and workaholism. One questions its rationality and the other questions its value for psychic health. Has the chief goal in life become the quest for more and more (including more applause for workaholism), "forcing" us to stay on the treadmill until we drop dead?

Shulevitz's discovery of one of the creation's basic laws, namely, that God made humans for a weekly day of rest, is one of the evidences that false gods and misleading ways of life cannot transport humans out of God's creation or remove us from the continuing validity of God's commandments. We may think we are free to decide how to dispose of our free time, and we may believe that the quest for more and more things to titillate our never-satiated wants is the way to live. But our true identity as the image of God exposes such thinking and such faith as irrational and misleading.

It is time to get back in touch with reality. To enjoy life, we must take time to rest, and to truly enjoy rest is to accept that life's ultimate happiness is to be found in the service of God and in the weekly celebration of the hope of entering God's day of rest (Heb. 4:10). From this point of view, workaholism is dishonorable because it dissolves the true meaning of work in the endless quest for a happiness that we cannot create for ourselves. Workaholism leads to restlessness, not to rest. Instead, meaningful work is stewardship in service—to God and to our neighbors—arising from thankfulness to God, the giver and restorer of life and work and rest. If we practice this religion instead of idolatrous modernism, we will be able to enjoy both work and rest. Neither in itself is life's goal. Neither is the goal of the other. Both together find their purpose, destiny, and joy in the God who created us for fulfillment in the divine sabbath.