Peasedown St John Methodist Church

It's the summer - yes it is!!! A time God-willing, when there is that chance for quality family time, a break, rest and refreshment, and the opportunity to recharge batteries before it's back to school and work again. Blackpool Council announced that inspectors are to carry out spot checks on the beach to ensure that the ‘employment rights’ of working donkeys are being properly respected. The 200 tourist-carrying animals are not allowed to work on Fridays and must have at least an hour for lunch in their 10am to 7pm working day.

Human beings also need regular rest periods. In the Old Testament, the Sabbath is set aside for such recuperation. It originated in the story of creation where God rested because his work was finished. "By the seventh day God, had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work, and God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." (Genesis 2. 2-3)
One of the reasons why many people find real rest hard to come by these days is that they never feel their work is finished – there is always more to do. This makes it even more important to be disciplined about taking regular breaks.

We need to stop working; just shifting to a different kind of work won’t have the same effect. For most of us, it’s only when we stop doing that we have a chance to be. Donkeys may not need time to just enjoy being donkeys – though that may be what they do during their breaks from the unnatural task of carrying people up and down a beach – but human beings do benefit when they can just enjoy being who they are.

A spokesperson for Blackpool Council said that whilst lunch breaks were new, a donkey’s Friday off had been customary for, well, donkey’s years. The tradition of making space to enjoy being alive without the demands of work is also an ancient one, and one worth applying to ourselves. If when our allocated time off is over, it’s to the same old chores that we have to return, it’ll be with a new vigour and joie de vivre.

And remember these words from Psalm 46 it "Be still and know that I am God"