When if comes to making a difference in our world, the record shows that Christian influence is ill-placed when it is put behind the efforts of advocacy of biblical principles in a secular-valued world. In an era today where the influence of the Christian church is nominally successful on a national scale, Christians must find a way to influence change through actions and behaviors that present an example of living in harmony with God.
For instance, the benefits of a Sabbath for an ever-increasing busy world where the state of stress is a constant for most people. As Christians, advocacy for keeping a Sabbath has given way to commercialism, and the path to change is for Christians to live out the example. The most common example is Chick-Fil-A who has chosen companywide to observe the Sabbath, yet still remains a successful, growing organization competitive with the organizations open on Sundays. What Chick-Fil-A has shown the country is that Sabbath observance has benefits outside of compliance to a religious mandate.
What the secular world is finding is that Sabbath is re-establishing and recognizing the qualitative aspect of time rather than just the quantitative (Kaiser, 2010). The modern Sabbath has become an intentional effort to turn off and tune in to life beyond the demands of the busyness (Organ, 2013), and provides the best opportunity to enact lasting community (Kaiser, 2010). The Sabbath, properly deployed, promotes social solidarity toward group cohesion (Shulevitz, 2011). It becomes a point where relationship grows naturally in depth as well as breadth. Within a community that collectively observes a Sabbath, the community becomes an actual community where life is lived side-by-side and joys are shared, which is a concept nearly extinct in the plugged-in world (Shulevitz, 2011). The case for Sabbath is in the results of observance that the world can observe.
References
Kaiser, M. (2010, March 30). The Case for the Sabbath, Even if You’re Not Religious. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/03/the-case-for-the-sabbath-even-if-youre-not-religious/38187/
Organ, C. (2013, August 2). Taking a Modern-Day Sabbath. Retrieved March 18, 2017, from http://archives.relevantmagazine.com/god/taking-modern-day-sabbath
Shulevitz, J. (2011). The sabbath world: glimpses of a different order of time. New York: Random House Trade Paperback.
