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.
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. Some of the resources I used for this chapter
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 that 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.
[i] Rachel Hartman, “12 Ways Retirees Spend Their Newfound Free Time,” U.S. News & World Report, September 2024. https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/articles/ways-retirees-spend-their-newfound-free-time.
[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).
[iv] Heintzman, 87-89.
[v] Heintzman, 112-115.
[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.
[vii] Witherington, 25.
[viii] Witherington, 23.
[ix] Joseph Gomes, “US Leisure Market Size | 2019-2033,” DataCube Research, June 2025, https://www.datacuberesearch.com/us-leisure-market.
[x] “Time Spent in Leisure and Sports in 2024,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 2025, https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2025/time-spent-in-leisure-and-sports-in-2024.htm.
[xi] Leland Ryken, Redeeming the Time: A Christian Approach to Work and Leisure. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1996). Kindle edition, 61.
[xii] Gabriel H. Sahlgren, “Work longer, live healthier: The relationship between economic activity, health, and government policy,” Age Endeavor Foundation and Institute of Economic Affairs, February 2013, https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Work%20Longer,%20Live_Healthier.pdf.
[xiii] Ryken, 11.
[xiv] Ryken, 145.
[xv] Ryken, 92.
[xvi] Ryken, 166.
[xvii] Leonard Doohan, Leisure: A Spiritual Need (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2016), 20.
[xviii] Doohan, 22.
[xix] Doohan, 26-28.
[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.
[xxi] Doohan, 31-32.
[xxii] Doohan, 88-91.
[xxiii] Doohan, 100.
[xxiv] David Platt, “Keeping Our Hobbies from Becoming Our Idols,” Radical, February 2020, https://radical.net/article/keeping-our-hobbies-from-becoming-idols/.
[xxv] Kyle Worley, “Is your hobby a ‘gift’ or a ‘god’?”, Biblical Recorder, May 2013, https://www.brnow.org/opinions/voices-opinion/Is-your-hobby-a-gift-or-a-god/.
[xxvi] “Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly,” The Economist, October 2025, https://www.economist.com/international/2025/10/23/meet-the-real-screen-addicts-the-elderly.
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