“Remember the Sabbath day and treat it as holy.   Six days you may work and do all your tasks, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. Do not do any work on it…” (Exodus 20:8-10, CEB).

Keywords: Sabbath, rest

     Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today. These are the words of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was not a procrastinator by any means. He worked in four hour bursts and maintained a disciplined schedule.

     However, not all of us are as industrious as Benjamin Franklin. Who among us hasn’t had the experience of not doing the very thing we know we should be doing? We convince ourselves that the task at hand can wait.

     Sadly, the decision to put off a duty until the next day often results in a lingering sense of guilt. We were taught the clash between our good intentions and our poor follow-through is due to laziness. But what if the problem is not a matter of inferior motivation?

     Researchers claim the problem with procrastination is not so much a mindset process as it is physiological. When one experiences ongoing stress, the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) puts the brakes on your body. The PNS puts a freeze process in place leaving one to feel sluggish, fatigued, and unable to make decisions.

     This freezing process, however, has a sensible antidote. Sabbath. God instructed the Jewish people to take off one day a week from work. The Sabbath was and is a day that is holy or set apart from the other six days. Unplugging from our work week is God’s solution to dealing with stress.

     The freezing process of the parasympathetic nervous system is the body’s alarm that the shift has ended and the time for rest has arrived.

     Therefore, Benjamin Franklin is not altogether correct in his mandate to avoid procrastination. For Christians, Sunday is a day to recharge our spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical batteries. As Jesus said, the Seventh Day was created for the benefit of human beings. So, putting off until the day after Sabbath is a means of receiving one of God’s greatest gifts.

     The challenge at hand is not to work longer, but smarter. Remember life is a marathon, not a sprint. So, be sure to pace yourself accordingly.