On and Off
by John Sainsbury
I have to confess that I am not gifted with technology. If everything is working fine, then that’s wonderful. If anything does go wrong, I really don’t have the first idea about what to do. However, I have learned that the tried and tested, internationally recognised, first rule of technological repair is simply this: Try turning it off and on again.
When God created the world, He built into its design a regular on or off moment to keep everything in balance. We know this as the Sabbath. It was one of the things which marked out God’s people from all the other peoples of the world. They downed tools one day in every seven and had a rest. But worldly pressures always came against this pattern and inevitably it got squeezed, which then left the religious leaders to try and specify what was, and what wasn’t, work, so that the Sabbath didn’t get compromised. Sadly, as we learn from Jesus, they often drew their lines in the wrong places.
More though, this Sabbath principle also operated on a seven-year basis so that every seventh year the land itself was given a year of rest. We read the details of this in Leviticus 25. We certainly get the sense that the world works better when it operates a healthy routine of work, rest and play.
But what if it doesn’t? What happens when things go wrong?
Maybe there are times when the best thing to do is to turn it off and turn it on again.
This brings me to the last twelve months. With the onset of the Coronavirus, the world has experienced the extraordinary situation where so many aspects of our ordinary lives have experienced their own time of being turned off for a time. There has been much challenge, confusion and sorrow over the past year. It’s not always easy to take time out to stop trusting in our own efforts and to rely on God. But the verse above reminds us that when we do have periods of stillness, God is still the same God. He knows exactly how things work and how to fix them when they don’t!
Prayer: Dear Father, thank You for the reassurance that, even when we can’t understand what is going on, You are still God and we can rest completely in Your care. Amen.
John Sainsbury and his wife Sue are part of the leadership team at Ellel Grange. John has served as a church leader for many years, most recently as Lead Pastor of the Garstang Free Methodist Church. He has a passion for seeing many brought into the fulness of life that following Christ brings.
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