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Why Leisure Suits You: Your Summer Guide to Becoming Happier, Healthier, and Holier
By Mike Aquilina
God made us for work. When He created the first man and woman, He commanded them to “fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over . . . every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Gen 1:28). “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Gen 2:15).
Leopold Graf von Kalckreuth
Give it a Rest, Already
There are, of course, benefits to vacation in the natural order. Our bodies need rest. Our minds need rest. Aristotle was a practical man, and he saw the benefits of leisure. He says, in the Nicomachean Ethics, “Since we cannot work forever, we need relaxation.” Rest, he said, is “a means to activity.” Modern research has confirmed that employees who rest are indeed more productive than employees who work without ceasing. As Christians we have the obligation to worship on Sunday, and our great and obligatory act of worship is called the Eucharist. The name comes from the Greek eucharistia, which means “thanksgiving.”In leisure we take delight in creation, not just because it makes us feel good, but because it gives glory to God. On Sunday, for example, we enjoy the company of spouse and children, not simply because that’s what’s on the schedule for Sunday, but because we have freed our minds to see these people as they are, and see them for what they are. When we attend a Sunday Mass with our families, we have a God-given chance to see a spouse, a child, a parent, a grandchild as a gift from God, and we have a chance to thank God for the gift. God doesn’t need our thanks, and He doesn’t need our worship. If He has commanded these actions, it is because He knows we need them. He knows they’re good for us. The Last Word on LeisureLeisure requires work on our part, a little planning, a little expense.
But this, too, is labor for the sake of a Sabbath. We toil now so that we can relax for a while and let God work in our leisure.
To leave work on time—to forego the optional Sunday shift—to use vacation time rather than piling it up—these are acts of trust. And they are tithes paid to God, simple and small tokens acknowledging that He is really the owner of all our hours of all our days. Please understand: I have not come here to induce a guilt trip on hard-working parents. For the sake of our families, we need to work hard. But we also need to know when to give it a rest. Leisure is an opportunity to draw close to God, in Himself and in others, in relaxed study and in prayer, in delight in His creation and in the delightful contingency of a shared ride on the roller coaster. Leisure is a notoriously unproductive thing, when judged by industrial standards, but it does produce such moments, and such moments are holy. This post originally appeared in Lay Witness magazine.