Life can be pretty crazy and hectic for me sometimes. I look forward to summer because things tend to slow down a bit.
I look forward to my day off every week, and I try to practice the rhythms of rest and recovery. I remember hearing someone ask actor Paul Lynde, "How goes the rat race?" to which he replied, "The rats are winning!"
In January 1959 a 32 year old disc jockey named Peter Tripp staged a 200 hour wake-a-thon in Times Square, in a booth, for the benefit of the March of Dimes.
During his sleepless marathon he was attended to by doctors and was given periodical medical examinations, performance tests, and psychological tests. After two sleepless days, he began to have hallucinations, such as seeing cobwebs on his shoes. After 100 hours, his memory was becoming quite poor and he was having difficulty with simple
performance tests.
His hallucinations became more and more frightening; he saw a doctor's tweed suit as a suit of fuzzy worms. When he went to his room for a change of clothes, he saw the dresser drawer in flames.
To explain these hallucinations to himself, he decided that the
doctor had deliberately set the fire to scare, and test him.
A simple algebra problem that he had earlier solved with ease now required super-human effort. Doctors marveled as they watched the spectacle of this suave New York radio entertainer trying in vain to find his way through the alphabet.
At the end of the 200 hours, nightmare, reality, and hallucinations had merged, and he felt that he was the victim of a sadistic
conspiracy among the doctors.
I share this story to illustrate the potential damage we do to ourselves when we neglect to follow God's
divinely ordained rhythm of rest.
Don't be deceived into thinking that rest is an option. One man has said, "Don't forget to take one day a week to have your Sabbath rest, because if you don't take your Sabbaths, God may collect them all at once." It is God's desire that you be healthy and refreshed weekly, in body, soul, and spirit.
