Troublesome Topic: Is it Sin for Me to Leave My House on Sunday?

In my opinion we should strive to apply the principle of staying at home without becoming legalistic about it. Can we get in the car and go to a worship service with other believers? Sure, that fits the principle of putting God and family first. Can we drive to Grandma and Grandpa’s house (assuming they don’t live a long distance away)? Yes, that brings family together. Can we take a walk? Of course. How about that Sunday afternoon drive that farmers are so famous for? That one is a bit questionable in my mind because I fear that the purpose is not so much to connect with family but to check out other farmers’ crops—he is still farming in his head. While that became a tradition among farmers years ago, I think there are better ways to connect with God and family. Can we do special activities like going boating on Sunday afternoon? That one is also questionable because it seems to violate the principle about not doing what we please on the Sabbath. God seems to think that staying at home is the best way to strengthen our connection to God and to our family—and I venture to say there’s a high percentage chance (like 100%) that He’s right. So we should put our efforts into training ourselves to follow the principles God has laid out about the Sabbath, rather than trying to find ways around them.

 However, with the amount of modern technology that most American families have in their homes, staying at homes does not assure the family is connecting. It is now too easy for members of the family to be watching TV, playing video games or surfing the internet and not connecting at all with others in the family. This is true whether these things are done in a separate room or even in the same room as others. Since each person can be absorbed in his own activity, being at home together does not assume we are connecting. This means that we must be even more purposeful about connecting as a family. That is one more reason playing games as a family is a good suggestion for Sunday afternoon or evening.

Summary

One benefit of rest is that it creates intimacy in our key relationships. The way God’s people learn this principle is to stay at home on His day and purposefully bring God and family together.

(The next section in this topical study is called Resting in Cycles Produces Overflow. You can go to the first lesson of that section by clicking on this link: Cycles in Nature.)