Sunday is also a special day

It's said that Sunday is a day of rest. But if you're an active Mormon, that isn't really the case. You've got the regular three hours of church, plus extra meetings (presidency, committee, ward council, etc.), firesides, home teaching, family visits, and who knows what else on top of that. Not a lot of resting going on. Still, even though Sunday is often the busiest day of the week, most of the time these Sabbath activities leave me feeling refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to begin a new week.

By contrast: last Sunday was perhaps the most literal day of rest I've ever had. I went to Chicago for the weekend for my birthday (blog on that coming next week, hopefully), and came home on Sunday. My friend and I were traveling standby, so we got to the airport by 7:30 AM for the first flight of the day. We didn't make it. The next flight was scheduled to leave about 9:30, but there was a 3-plus hour maintenance delay. While this resulted in more sitting around, we likely wouldn't have made the flight without the extra delay, since it caused a bunch of people to change their flights. The flight in question took us to New York--the opposite direction of our ultimate destination. We had another two-hour wait in NYC before boarding the long flight back to Salt Lake City.

All in all, I was either in an airport or on a plane from 7:30 AM Central Time until almost 11:00 PM Mountain Time. After a day where I did nothing but sit around...I was EXHAUSTED. This was in part because the seats I spent all day in were less than ideal, and also because I was nervous over whether we'd actually get on the flights. But mostly, I was tired for two reasons--because my sitting around was merely waiting, it wasn't actually resting, and because it was the first time in years that I didn't participate in at least part of a worship service.

This stuff is important. I'm glad we have the Sabbath Day. I'm glad for the "rest" it can provide for us, even when we're not actually resting in the traditional sense. Two of the LDS Church callings that demand the most on Sundays of those that hold them are bishop and full-time missionary. I bet that no matter how busy these guys are this Sunday, it will seem pretty restful compared to the weeks they've had. Hopefully they can leave their swords at home and wait until Monday to fight crime in their neighborhoods.



This week's Sunday School lesson is on the Sabbath Day. Saturday is a special day--the day we get ready for Sunday--so take a few minutes tonight and prepare for the lesson.