We Need to Rest

In 1879, the modern world changed forever with a patent. It was issued for the invention of a carbon filament made of cotton and linen thread, wood splints, and papers coiled in various ways. This process, after fine-tuning, would launch a company the following year. The company would be dedicated to the commercial production of the electric light bulb. The Edison Electric Company offered its customers a safer, cleaner, cheaper alternative to gaslight. Electric power began to replace gas in homes and factories. For the first time in human history, work was no longer limited to the time between sunrise and sunset.

To Rest or Not to Rest?

With his modern utterance of “let there be light,” Thomas Edison invited humanity into a world that never sleeps. Edison himself believed sleep was a waste of time. He was known to work over 100 hours a week, to hold job interviews at 4:00 a.m., and insist that his employees adhere to the same sleepless schedule he did. Edison lived and promoted a philosophy that rest was the enemy of productivity. In 1914, he said that there is no reason why men should go to bed at all.

It appears his vision for sleepless humanity has come to pass. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have declared a sleep deprivation epidemic among Americans.

Though Edison’s “let there be light” may have ushered us into sleeplessness, the divine creator who uttered, “Let there be light” also benevolently declares “Let there be rest.”

And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28.)

God has a plan for our health and wellness, and rest is a part of that plan.

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Michael Temple writes from North Dakota.

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