Leisure 7.1.303

1
Leisure
2
Slow me down, Lord!

• Leisure is the intentional use of our time to
  become more alive, more vital.
• It does not have to be useful to anyonejust
  pleasant for you. It is an end in itself.
• Leisure equals freedom to learn, openness to
  wonder, and delivery from ought.

3
Gifts from God

• And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God
  and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your
  work and accept your lot in lifethat is indeed a
  gift from God. Eccles. 519 (NLT)
• And people should eat and drink and enjoy the
  fruits of their labor leisure, for these are
  gifts from God. Eccles. 313 (NLT)

4
Leisure Lost

• So many Christians... have succumbed to
  busyness, unhappiness, tightness and boredom.
  Many suffer from a nagging sense of guilt that no
  matter how much they do, it is never quite
  enough... Words like wonder, joy, rest, and
  freedom have become faded replicas of what Christ
  taught.

5

• Time becomes a tyrant instead of a friend. Joy
  becomes something we will do later. Play becomes
  something for children. Creativity becomes the
  unattainable quality of artists and poets instead
  of the essence of our lives. Wonder is just the
  name of a bread and imagination doesn't make
  enough money to be worthwhile." Tim Hansel (When
  I Relax, I Feel Guilty).

6
Leisure inspires creativity

• In the beginning God created. And the earth was
  without form and void. Gen. 11,2.
• From the endless well of God's creativity, God
  molded this shapeless, empty world into something
  beautiful. He wove colors, sounds and textures.
  He threw in intricate detail like snowflakes,
  flower pedals and butterfly wings. Below the
  surface He created the microscopic world of
  biology. In the distance He created the
  telescopic world of astronomy. Coy Wylie

7
Leisure includes communication

• Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the
  LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the
  cool of the day. Gen. 38 NIV
• One gets the impression that this was a daily
  occurrence, something that Adam and Eve had grown
  to expect when their work was done, and it was
  time for leisure.

8
Communion with God

• Now in the morning, having risen a long while
  before daylight, He went out and departed to a
  solitary place and there He prayed. Mark 135
• And when He had sent them away, He departed to
  the mountain to pray. Mark 646.
• So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness
  and prayed. Luke 516
• And it happened, as He was alone praying, that
  His disciples joined Him. Luke 918

9

• Slow me down, Lord.Ease the pounding of my
  heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my
  hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach
  of time. Give me, amid the confusion of the day,
  the calmness of the everlasting hills.
• Slow me down, Lord,
• Remind me each day that the race is not always
  to the swift that there is more to life than
  increasing its speed.

10
Listen
11
Leisure involves rest

• God rested from His work.
• On the seventh day, having finished his task, God
  rested from all his work. Gen. 22 NLT
• We were designed to take a day of rest.

12

• High productivity of consumer goods requires
  greater consumption of things and stuff (or
  people will lose their jobs--unemployment goes up
  as consumption goes down) which takes up more and
  more of our time (to use those things), leaving
  us less time for leisure!

13
Gods school of leisure

• The essence of leisure is learning.
• The Greek word for leisure is scholathe root
  from which our word school is derived.
• Rest doesnt have to be idleness or sleeping
  rest can be something different which we enjoy,
  and we can learn in the process.

14
A life of leisure

• Take at least one full day off a week.
• Take minute vacationsstop, meditate, pray, or
  take a power nap.
• Plan your vacations with a relaxing pace and a
  minimum of work.
• Learn to let some things go undone.
• Choose free time over extra pay.
• Learn to relax without feeling guilty.
• Cultivate a taste for edifying leisure, not
  draining pleasures.

15

• And people should eat and drink and enjoy the
  fruits of their labor leisure, for these are
  gifts from God. Eccles. 313 (NLT)