The following
is my current draft of a chapter on leisure in retirement. It is somewhat based
on a paper I wrote for seminary on the relationship between 21st-Century
American leisure and the Biblical concepts of sabbath and rest. I took that
paper and made it more specific to retirement and less formal. For example, in
the research paper I was not allowed to use I, we, or you. I'm not happy with it, but I need to move on for now.
 |
| Some of the resources I used for this chapter |
One problem I
often encounter in writing is that the more I work on something, the more
familiar it becomes and the less I like it. Generally, that means it is time to
put it aside for a while. I think the chapter is too long and still too stilted and academic for the
intended audience of the book. Some of that I can solve by using more indirect
quotes leading to fewer footnotes or endnotes. I’d like to add some more examples
from people like you. Finally, it will need additional passes to tighten it up,
make the language more approachable, rearrange and shorten some of the sections (or move them to other chapters),
and make the chapter even more specific to retirement. Despite those deficiencies, I
wanted to get folks’ feedback while I moved on to other tasks such as writing
the introduction and a preliminary outline. Please note that the footnotes are a little weird, but I could not figure out how on this blog to make them superscript numbers rather than Roman numerals. They look fine in my Word document!
Please send
me any thoughts, questions, or suggestions you may have. The best way for me is for you to email me at bill@catchings.com. I need all the help I
can get!
By the way, I
always try to come up with some sort of picture for blog entries. At least this
time it is not a picture with me in it! These won’t be in the actual book.
Leisure: God’s Gift or Satan’s Snare
My grandfather retired in the 1970s
to one of the first large retirement communities in New Jersey named Leisure
Village. He played pinochle, acted in plays, traveled widely, and generally
took advantage of all the leisure such a community had to offer. For many people,
retirement and leisure are almost synonymous. The prevailing thinking is that
once you retire you will finally have the time to travel, play golf, indulge in
hobbies, nap, or do whatever it is that you have long wanted to do. Retirement
means living a life of leisure.
Statistics
back up that prevailing view. U.S. News and World Report looked at the data on
people of retirement age (65+) from the 2023 American Time Use Survey. One of
the key findings was that retirees spend about seven hours a day on leisure
activities such as watching TV, socializing, doing hobbies, using devices
(computers, phones, etc.), and reading. The only category consuming more time
was personal care which includes sleeping. Organizational, civic, and religious
activities were on average about half an hour per day.[i] Barry Manilow’s 1970s
jingle for McDonalds told us that we deserve a break today. For retirees, that
seems to be most of the day!
Is
that what God would have us to do with so much of our time? While that question
is important for Christians at any age, it is particularly so for retirees
whose leisure time largely consumes the time that used to be dedicated to
working. God created us and understood our needs. He also created the sabbath
and rest. He knew that we needed rest to function as He intended. To try and
fulfill that need, we have substituted leisure for rest. That leisure often is
not restful and falls short of God’s intended purposes. A proper Biblical
perspective on leisure can restore God’s original intent.
Unfortunately, not much has been
written on the relationship between leisure and biblical rest. This handful of
books all seem to refer to each other. They even all seem to start with a
lament about how little has been written on the subject. Typical is Paul
Heintzman’s comment in Leisure and Spirituality: Biblical, Historical, and
Contemporary Perspectives. Heintzman is a theologian who specializes in
leisure studies. He states, “there is a paucity of theological and ethical
guidance on leisure.”[ii] Despite the lack of
sufficient serious consideration regarding a proper Christian view of leisure,
it is possible amongst the weariness of 21st-Century American life
to enjoy Jesus’ promised rest (Matt 11:28).[iii]
God instituted the sabbath and
explained the importance of rest for His people early in the book of Genesis.
The first mention of rest is in Genesis 2:1-3 which explains that God rested
from His creative work on the seventh day. (Lest anyone be confused, Isaiah
40:28 makes clear God does not get tired!) The word sabbath does not appear in
these verses, but the word translated as “rested” in verses 2 and 3 shares the
same Hebrew root word, “shabbat” which is most commonly translated elsewhere in
the Bible as ceased. Heintzman argues that when God ceased from his creative
work, he returned to His natural state of rest. So too as God’s image bearers,
we naturally need rest. Further, the first full day of Adam’s and Eve’s lives
was a day of rest. Thus, the work in the garden they were called to do followed
that rest.[iv]
There is no clear evidence in
Genesis of God’s people observing the sabbath. Some theologians do, however,
see some indications. After all, before God gave the ten commandments, Cain
knew that murder was wrong. Something similar could be argued about observing
the sabbath. Regardless of whether God’s people observed the sabbath in
Genesis, God does make very clear the importance of the sabbath after they
leave captivity in Egypt. God first details in the fourth commandment (Exodus
20:8-11) the importance of the sabbath day. Unlike most of the commandments, it
includes both details about its implementation and an explanation of the
rationale by recapitulating Genesis 2:1-3. In that explanation, the sabbath is
described as blessed and holy.
God reinforces and expands on the
importance of and rationale for the sabbath later in Exodus and in Deuteronomy.
Exodus 31:12-17 indicates that sabbath observance is an eternal sign between
God and the sons of Israel that they may know that He sanctifies them. The last
verse in the passage also adds a detail to the Genesis account saying that God
was refreshed. Deuteronomy 5:12-15 states that His people are to remember their
slavery in Egypt and how He brought them out of it. These three passages
combine to give blessing, holiness, sanctification, refreshment, and
remembrance as reasons for observing the sabbath.
The Bible authors also talk about
rest apart from the sabbath. Bible verses such as Psalms 23:1-3 and Proverbs
3:24 emphasize the importance of rest. The still or quiet waters of Psalm 23:2
are literally “waters of rest” in Hebrew. These passages describe rest and
restoration for the stressed and weary souls of the people of God.
In the New Testament, Jesus assures
His followers that they can find rest in Him (Matthew 11:28-30). Verse 28’s
wonderful message calling “all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give
you rest,” is one from which many Christians over the centuries have taken
comfort. All of Jesus’ followers can be comforted by His promise in verse 29 to
“find rest for your souls.” Jesus understood the weariness of His followers
both then and now.
The author of Hebrews looks at rest
in 4:1-11. Heintzman notes that the author connects the rest of Psalm 95:11 and
that of Genesis 2 as a type of God’s creation rest. He further emphasizes that
this rest is available in the present, not just in the future.[v] Ben Witherington, III, a
professor of New Testament Interpretation, sees the author of Hebrews calling
us to “enter that eschatological rest of God – not as a resting place or
resting time, but as a state of being, living by faith, with the peace of
Christ in our hearts, looking forward without anxiety about the future, because
the future is as bright as God’s promises and dawning Kingdom.” [vi] He thinks that “the
author of Hebrews is not talking about taking a day off, or sleeping, or
sabbatarian practice. He is talking about entering God’s rest, and
according to Hebrews 4:3 the key to having done so is believing.”[vii]
One of the key things to understand
is that there is a difference between rest and sloth. Jesus speaks of a light
and easy yoke, but even such a yoke still requires effort. Passages like
Proverbs 6:6-11 make clear that while rest is part of God’s plan, sloth is not.
Witherington contends that in this passage “there is a difference between
necessary rest and pure laziness.… What is interesting about this [passage] is
that it distinguishes sleep from rest and so should we…. We need both rest and
sleep.”[viii] (We’ll look more at
this topic in the chapter on idleness.)
As is often the case, the human
response to clear instruction from God is to try and figure it out on one’s
own. Rather than God’s commandment to set aside a sabbath day each week and His
invitation to enjoy rest, we strive after leisure. In the US alone, DataCube
Research estimates the leisure market to be $1.82T in 2025. The leisure market
is expanding rapidly with a projected compound annual growth rate of more than
6% over the next eight years.[ix] Those figures do not
include related markets such as entertainment that might be considered part of
leisure.
One of the factors driving the
leisure market is the available amount of leisure time most Americans, and
retirees in particular, have. The latest data from US Bureau of Labor
Statistics show Americans of retirement age (65 and older) spend about seven
hours per day on leisure activities. Leisure activities in the survey include
watching TV, playing games, socializing, reading, and exercising. Generally,
leisure time seems to be considered synonymous with free time.[x] Leland Ryland, a professor
emeritus of English, disagrees and thinks “leisure is more than nonwork. It is
an actively chosen, positive use of time for personal enrichment. Judged by
such a standard, much of what passes for leisure is less than leisure.”[xi]
Despite the amount of time retired
Americans spend in leisure activities, we are anything but rested or relaxed. Numerous
studies have chronicled the negative aspects of retirement. A 2013 study by
Britian’s Institute of Economic Affairs and the Age Endeavour Fellowship on
economics, health, age, and government policy included disturbing findings for
retired people in Great Britain. They include that retirement
·
decreases
the likelihood of being in ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ self-assessed health by
about 40%,
·
increases
the probability of suffering from clinical depression by about 40%, and
·
increases
the probability of suffering from clinical depression by 17%.[xii]
Anecdotally, it is hard to find any
of my retired friends who claim to be well rested. Modern-day leisure has not
shown itself to be equal to the weariness of the times. We are anything but
rested.
Unfortunately, the American church
has not been spared from society’s seduction by leisure. Ryken notes the church’s ambivalence and
confusion throughout history about the role of leisure in Christian life. He
bluntly states, “The church has never been able to make up its mind about
leisure. The Bible says little about leisure directly. Christians through the
centuries have also said and thought little about it, preferring to feel guilty
about time spent in leisure.”[xiii]
Ryken goes on to blame the church
for not adequately addressing the topic of leisure. He maintains that the
church has instead ceded the discussion of leisure to the secular world. In
doing his research on leisure he found that “the number of secular books and
articles far outnumbers those written from a Christian perspective. When I came
to integrate the data of the secular sources with the Christian faith, I often
found myself working in a vacuum.”[xiv]
Consequently, Christians see no
alternative to the world’s view of leisure and tend to go along with it. Ryken
thinks that Christians “pursue their leisure activities without a thought about
the morality of what they are doing or whether it is a good use of time. To put
it another way, the constraints on most people’s leisure are constraints of
time and money, not of religious or moral conscience.”[xv]
Ryken asserts that God’s example of
rest from Genesis 2 is critical to a proper understanding of leisure, “What,
then, does God’s rest from work say about leisure? It affirms leisure by
drawing a boundary around human work and acquisitiveness. Like God’s rest,
leisure frees us from the need to produce and allows us instead to enjoy what
has already been made.”[xvi] Unfortunately,
Christians do not hear that message from the pulpit or from Christians
resources that they may read.
One such resource is Leonard Doohan’s
small (100 pages) book from 1990, Leisure: A Spiritual Need. He is a
professor emeritus of religious studies and does an excellent job of exploring
what biblical leisure should look like. He contends it is an essential need
that Christians must have to be in a right place with God. He thinks Christians
need to get past their fear of not accomplishing things to commune with God. He
says, “To fail to see the value of simply being with God and ‘doing nothing’ is
to miss the heart of Christianity. We need leisure to be with God.”[xvii]
Doohan compares our attitudes
toward work and ministry to that of workaholic husband who loses touch with his
family. “The Christian who drives himself or herself all day and then falls
asleep during an attempt at prayer is familiar. ‘Lord, I offer my fatigue and
effort.’ Good, but it may not in every case be the most authentic prayer.
Prayer and contemplation need leisure.”[xviii]
Doohan goes on to give an excellent
explanation of what true leisure is not. It includes things like “not merely a
time to restore lost energies,” “not the restless pursuit and fanatical
enjoyment of leisure goods and activities,” “not merely the relaxation
necessary to maintain intense work,” and “not the empty stupor produced by the
misuse or excessive use of tranquilizers, alcohol, or prolonged hours of inane
television.” [xix]
An updated version would certainly have included time doom-scrolling on phones,
tablets, and laptops.
John Mark Comer is a Christian
author who opens the first chapter of A Ruthless Elimination of Hurry with
a story about Dallas Willard (noted for his contributions to Christian
spiritual formation) as related to him by megachurch pastor John Ortberg.
Ortberg was faced with rising fame and success at Willow Creek Community Church
in Chicago and asked Willard how cope with all of that. Willard’s response was,
“You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” When asked for more
details, Willard responded with, “There is nothing else. Hurry is the great
enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from
your life.”[xx]
His wisdom is true at any point in our lives but seems especially applicable to
retirees.
God was not in a hurry when he
ceased His labors after six days of creation. Jesus had a busy schedule that
somehow did not force Him to hurry. When He heard that Lazarus was dying, he
stayed two days where He was before going to Bethany to resurrect him (John
11:6). When crowds of people were gathering to hear Him speak, He would slip
away and pray (Luke 5:13). While it is not hard to find reasons Jesus might have
done these things other than being unhurried, it is hard to feel that Jesus was
in a hurry. Amidst the whirlwind of His 3-year, itinerant ministry, He walked
not ran, stopped to talk and heal, and took time to eat with friends.
Doohan is a professor at Gonzaga
University, and, like some of the other writers on Christian leisure, a
Catholic. As such, he emphasizes contemplative practices more than many Evangelicals
may be comfortable. There is, however, much wisdom in what he has to say. He
asserts that leisure should be “the relaxation of time, creative
self-development, and a self-tailored approach to life that always enriches all
of one’s personality.”[xxi] He sees spirituality,
worship, and prayer as deeply entwined with what he calls sabbatical living—a
life of pausing, resting, refocusing, worshipping, and celebrating life with
God.
Crucially, the first step is
pausing from the hurry and business of everyday, modern life. Once that is
done, Doohan (with a real flair for alliteration) thinks Christian leisure
consists of resting, reading, relaxing, recreating, rethinking, rejoicing, and
refocusing, which all combine to cause personal renewal. He cautions against
compulsiveness and complaining as enemies of such leisure.[xxii] His concluding words
are that “leisure is a necessary dimension of wellness and holistic living … a
necessary part of life [that] cannot be done for us by someone else, but rather
results exclusively from individual decision, selection, and implementation.”[xxiii]
We need to understand that leisure
is not intrinsically good or bad but should not dominate our retirement life.
God did not rest forever after his creative activities, nor should we once we
retire. We may need more rest as we age and can be thankful that we have more
time for leisure, but retirement cannot be solely about leisure, by any
definition of the term. Work time should not all become leisure time when we
retire. Instead, we need to balance such activities with what God has called us
to in retirement. We may even be able use those leisure activities as points of
contact with other people God puts in our lives.
Hobbies are an example of a
potential restful, leisure activity that retirement readily affords more time
to enjoy, and share with others. Merriam-Webster’s definition of a hobby is “a
pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.”
Some of my hobbies are cycling, reading (for pleasure not necessarily to
learn), and model trains. Cycling gets me good exercise and a set of friends
outside of church. Reading for pleasure allows me to learn history and
experience places that I will never visit (especially those in space or fantasy
worlds). Making small models for my N scale trains gives me a tactile creative
outlet. I find all these hobbies relaxing and restorative. The challenge, of
course, is to not let them grow to consume all my life. Or to allow them to
become obsessive such as concentrating on achieving difficult cycling goals.
David Platt is a pastor who has
seen people grapple with the proper role of hobbies. His online article on
hobbies becoming idols addresses the tricky issues people face without
vilifying hobbies. He says,
Every
good thing we enjoy in life is a gift from God (James 1:17), including our
hobbies. Whether that’s sports, music, fishing, reading, etc., we were made to
enjoy God through the things He has made. However, due to the remaining sin in
our lives, we also have to be on guard against turning our hobbies into idols.
It’s all too easy to begin enjoying and worshipping the gift while ignoring the
Giver.[xxiv]
He encourages Christians to examine
their hobbies in terms of what they think about, talk about, an spend money on.
If our examination reveals the answer is our hobby rather than our God, the
hobby has become an idol. I can see where each of my hobbies has at times
flirted with that line. He instead instructs us to use our hobbies to draw
attention to God, reveal His greatness, and lead others to Him.
Kyle Worley was a student pastor
when he wrote an article using the hobby of video games as his springboard.
While he aimed his words largely at students, the prevalence of phone-based
games like Candy Crush has become very prevalent among retirees. He looked at
whether a hobby is a gift or a god. He sees one of the big issues as one of
self-control. Are we in control of the hobby or does it control us? He sees
hobbies as legitimate rest, but that rest doesn’t “exempt us from the ongoing
mission of God in our home, church, and community.” He also sees hobbies as a
great way to involve others.[xxv] If you play video games
use that as an excuse to connect with younger people. Or, if you read books,
join a book club. Whatever your hobby or activity, using them to connect with
others can further God’s mission.
Worley correctly understood that phones,
tablets, and computers are not just an issue for the young. Retirees are
quickly becoming some of the biggest users of them. An article in The Economist
looks specifically at the use of these devices by retirees. It states, “As
today’s 60-somethings, already familiar with digital technology, enter
retirement, time spent on smart devices is shooting up among the elderly. Some
older adults ‘are increasingly living their lives through their phones, the way
teenagers or adolescents sometimes do’, says Ipsit Vahia, head of the
Technology and Ageing Laboratory at McLean Hospital, part of Harvard Medical
School. The digital habits that have transformed the teenage years are now
coming to old age.” The article contends that the elderly are the “real screen
addicts.”[xxvi]
One thing we all should do, retired
or not, is understand how much time we spend on our devices. Phones and tablets
can tell you how much time we spend using them and on what apps. Smartphones
make this easy to do. Go to your phone’s “Settings.” On iPhones and iPads,
select “Screen Time” and then “See All App & Website Activity.” For Android
devices, select “Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls” and tap the
resulting chart. If you are like me, the data will be convicting. Sure, some of
the time was using my Bible app, but most of it was not!
Just like leisure in general, we
can’t allow our phones to rule our lives and ruin our rest. Here are a few
ideas that can help with that:
·
Don’t
take your phone to bed. If you use it as your alarm clock, buy a cheap alarm
clock instead. If you need to be able to be contacted in an emergency, use something
like the phones do not disturb settings to restrict trivial access.
·
Don’t
have phones at the dinner table.
·
When
you are with someone else leave your phone in your pocket or purse.
·
Ask
permission before picking up your phone if you are with someone.
·
Turn
off notifications for as many things as possible.
·
Set
app timers or limits for apps you can’t resist, just like parents can do with
their children.
While leisure can be an important
part of resting, it cannot fulfill all that God intended for us in terms of
sabbath rest. This is especially true for retirees as weekdays and weekends (including
the sabbath) are more likely to be indistinguishable from each other. We need
to develop the spiritual discipline of sabbath rest. There are good resources
for doing this, but here is a simple idea for starting small. Start by putting
aside time (maybe half an hour or an hour) on Sunday (or some other day if
Sunday is not possible) to not do your normal activities, maybe after dinner or
before church. Just spend the time reading Scripture, listening to Christian
music, praying, or chatting with friends. There is no need to get carried away like
the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, but God’s desire for us to put aside the normal
rhythms of the day is still healthy as that is how he created us to live.
From the beginning, God created His
people to rest and observe His sabbath. Old Testament passages include
blessing, holiness, sanctification, refreshment, and remembrance as reasons for
observing the sabbath. Psalms and Proverbs encourage rest while warning against
sloth. Jesus promises rest for the weary and a light and easy yoke. In modern
times, the secular American response to the consequences of the lack of the
rest Jesus promised has been to emphasize leisure. Many retirees no longer need
to spend much of their day working and have leaned hard into leisure as the
answer. Statistics show that leisure is not making Americans (both retired and
still working) feel any sense of rest, rather weariness, exhaustion, and
burnout. Christians have not done a good job of offering an alternative.
Consequently, we are still weary, exhausted, and burned out. A healthier alternative
of Christian leisure is possible. The key elements are to avoid hurry, keep leisure
in its proper balance, and focus on activities that enable rest, recreation,
prayer, and renewal. God’s commandment to rest and observe the sabbath is as
valid today as it was in the beginning. God’s people need to embrace the light
and easy yoke that Jesus promises to experience His rest.
[ii] Paul Heintzman, Leisure and
Spirituality: Biblical, Historical, and Contemporary Perspectives (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015), xxiv.
[iii]
All Scripture references, unless noted otherwise, are from Holy Bible: New
American Standard Bible (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995).
[vi] Ben Witherington, III, The Rest
of Life: Rest, Play, Eating, Studying, Sex from a Kingdom Perspective.
(Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2012), 37.
[xi] Leland Ryken, Redeeming the
Time: A Christian Approach to Work and Leisure. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Books, 1996). Kindle edition, 61.
[xvii] Leonard Doohan, Leisure: A
Spiritual Need (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2016), 20.
[xx] John Mark Comer, The Ruthless
Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in
the Chaos of the Modern World (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook, 2019), Kindle
edition, 19.
