True Rest & Festive Joy
Grasping Definitions & Finding the Source
Happy Thanksgiving! What follows is an updated draft of an old, rambling rumination I composed years ago based on the works of Josef Pieper. I have tweaked it and added some things recently. I hope it gets you thinking about rest and joy during this week that’s supposed to be filled with festivity and thankfulness.
Key Practical Questions & Frustrations
What should we be doing with our spare time?
How do I enjoy this time of rest when I feel so restless?
How do I rest without being simply idle?
How do I pursue leisure time without feeling guilty or anxious about not being productive?
Why does it seem like the rest and leisure I take are not all that restful?
How much time/money should I be devoting to leisure?
How do I pursue leisure in a way that is godly?
The Deeper Questions that Must Be Answered First
What is leisure?
What is festivity?
What’s the point of leisure time/rest?
Once we answer these questions, many of the previous, practical questions are easier to navigate.
Note: Leisure and Rest are interchangeable, just as Festivity and Joy are interchangeable
Leisure & Festivity (from Pieper)
Leisure is an attitude of the mind, a condition of the soul, and is fundamentally receptive. Leisure is contemplative; it’s an immersion into the reality that God is in control of everything, and that this reality is good.1 In other words, true rest has less to do with the things you pursue, and more to do with the mindset in which you pursue them. Leisure is built on a mindset that is always receiving the good gifts of God. But where does such a mindset come from? How does one cultivate or nourish such an attitude so that it becomes more foundational to one’s life? Hopefully we come to some answers by the end of this post. But leisure is not idleness, nor is it something that is productive. Leisure is not work, nor is it for the purpose of ‘recharging’ so we can return to work – that would be to make leisure ultimately about work and production.
Well-ordered leisure will inevitably foster festivity. Whereas the leisurely mindset leads us into times of true rest, a spirit of festivity leads us into experiences of authentic joy. Festivity is a deep-seated joy that is based on a universal affirmation of all that is.2 In other words, as we affirm that God is in control and that this is good, we affirm that every moment of life is good. Yes, there is sin, death, pain, sickness, tragedy – these things are not good, but as they are woven into God’s good plan they are given a meaning and purpose that is ultimately good. It is as we take joy in everything that we can have joy in anything – any moment. Joy is the right response to God’s good work of creating and sustaining all things and times. We take joy in our existence because it is good since it comes from God.
Leisure is about rest and festivity is about joy, but these feelings and attitudes nestle closely together in our lives. They are quite similar in that they are both undergirded by an affirmation of God’s goodness, the goodness of his creation, and the goodness of his plan. But how else are they distinguishable? Think of leisure as more foundational, and festivity as something that grows from there. Think of leisure as the trunk and the big branches of a tree, and festivity as the leaves and the fruit. The taproot of the tree is that three-fold divine goodness we just listed above, and the whole root system thrives to the extent that we take hold of divine goodness by faith. But that begs the question: what is the nourishment for this tree of rest and joy? The necessary nourishment for this tree is the worship of the triune God. Neither leisure, nor festivity – neither rest, nor joy – can flourish without the worship of the one, true God. So divine worship is the source for experiencing rest and joy. Without the nourishment of divine worship our sense of rest, joy, and even God’s goodness can easily fade away in this fallen world.
If we want these attitudes of rest and joy to permeate our lives, then we have to receive everything as from the hand of God - we must live lives of worship and attend to the corporate worship of the Church. But we have to be careful because we cannot treat divine worship as a means to an end. We don’t approach worship primarily for what we can get out of it. We worship God for God - He is the end. Divine worship is an end in itself, and yet it brings forth so much fruit: rest, joy, peace, etc. Similarly, leisure cannot bring rest, and festivity cannot bring joy if they are mechanically worked into a step-by-step process designed to achieve rest and joy. These things come from God and cannot be manufactured – they can only be received.
The Worship of God, Divine Goodness, Rest, and Joy coalesce as an organic development that must be grasped as a whole, not meticulously planned out.
Idleness
Returning now to the definition of leisure, idleness actually prevents true rest because idleness/laziness/sloth is the root of that restlessness we feel. Idleness, boredom, killing time, and meaninglessness are the results when we cut divine worship off from this part of our lives that we call leisure. The reason we are so susceptible to idleness is that our society (and we ourselves) tends to look at reality through the lens of productivity and efficiency. We are either productive or idle, no in-between – and therefore, no space for true rest or joy. This is why we often try to find joy or rest in work itself or in extravagant vacations.
We are religious creatures, and if we won’t find religious rest and joy in the worship of God, we will try to find a substitute elsewhere. If we can’t find space in our lives for rest and joy stemming from divine worship, we will make work (or something else) our religion instead. This, of course, is idolatry and misplaced desire, breaking the 1st, 2nd and 10th commandments. Leisure time can itself become idolatrous if seen as an end in itself, cut off from God. How often do you seek to escape from God in your leisure time? How often do we feel that something is seriously lacking in our attempts to orchestrate festive occasions? We can arrange festivals/celebrations, but festivity does not always result. Funny enough, it was Friedrich Nietzsche of all people who said, “the trick is not to arrange a festival, but to find people who can enjoy it.”3
Worship
Connected as it is to divine worship, leisure is disconnected from usefulness or productivity and connected instead to generosity and receiving. And the festival of festivals is the celebration of God in the Sunday worship service through Word and Sacrament - this is how we are formed into people of joy. In attending to the Word of God, we are given an abiding joy that is not of this world. Jesus gives us his words, his teaching, his promises, and his commandments so that his joy may be in us, and that our joy may be full or complete (John 15:11). Jesus bids us to come to him, to sit at his feet and learn from him, and he will give us rest for our souls (Matt. 11:29). Jesus gives us himself, his body and blood, for eternal life (John 6:53-58). God gave/gives the full abundance of himself to us in Jesus Christ, and as we receive him and are filled up with him, we can go out and give to others. We can go out filled with true rest and authentic joy - with life eternal.
But this is not the rest and joy of always getting what we want or always getting our way. Divine worship is ultimately about sacrifice:
“Through [Jesus] then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” (Heb. 13:15-16)
“Deny yourself [your goals/priorities] and take up your cross daily and follow [Jesus].” (Luke 9:23)
“Offer up your bodies as a living sacrifice.” (Rom. 12:1)
The love of God for us was most explicit at the cross where the Son of God laid down his life as a sacrifice (1 John 4:9-10). That should motivate us to worship God. Just as Jesus received everything from the Father and offered himself up as a sacrifice, we are called to receive from God and live sacrificially. We are called to be “imitators of God” (Eph. 5:1-2; Phil. 4:18). These truths and this attitude fosters a whole different way of approaching life.
The Summation
All of life, all of time, all of existence is a gift from God. Rest and joy grow as we receive each moment and experience as a fundamentally good gift from God. The worship of God with God’s people is necessary for the cultivation of rest and joy.
With this in mind, the basic thrust of leisure is the contemplation of what God has done and is doing in our lives. It’s listening to God speak through our experiences, and seeing God in all of life and the lives of our closest relationships. It’s hearing God in his Word and looking to Jesus Christ. It’s relying on the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Strictly speaking, there is no point to festivity since it grows from worship and rest. Joy is the fruit of our love for God and love for life. Festivity overfills our cups so that we give joy to others, and also return to God day-by-day and week-by-week with deep contentment and thanksgiving.
A Circular Outline
1. Divine Worship (Love from God and for God through Sacrifice)
Sunday Worship in Particular. This is the starting point, and the end goal as well since worship is nothing less than communion with God.
2. Leisure/Rest (Contemplation of God and His Many Gifts in Life)
Most days of the week have time for both work and leisure, but there is special leisure on Sunday since it is the day of rest given to us by God. It should be a day where the cycle of work is interrupted if at all possible.
3. Festivity/Joy (Affirmation of All that God has Created, Sustained, and Given – Affirmation of All of Life and All of Creation)
This joy should permeate the whole week, but Festivals are the clearest expression of festivity – The Worship Service (especially services like Christmas Eve Communion), Easter Brunch, Thanksgiving Feast in our Homes, Anniversary or Birthday Celebrations, etc.
4. Contentment/Thanksgiving that Leads us back to Divine Worship
This should permeate the whole week, but finds its clearest expression in daily Prayer. This is a crucial practice since it forms us into worshipful people, and impels us back into the worship of God week by week. Bitter, ungrateful people have a hard time worshipping God, and thus, a hard time communing with God. But it is only in worshipping God that we approach the One who is Himself the source of Rest, Joy, and Goodness. He IS Goodness.
And since God is the Good, all that is good in the world is a faint glimmer and beautiful manifestation of Him. As the great Puritan, Stephen Charnock once wrote:
“‘[God] is good to all,’ Ps. 145:9, he therefore is good in all; not a drop of the creation, but is a drop of his goodness.”4
Josef Pieper, Leisure, the Basis of Culture, Translated by Alexander Dru (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1963), 46.
Josef Pieper, In Tune with the World, a Theory of Festivity, Translated by Richard and Clara Winston (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 1965), 22-26.
Friedrich Nietzsche, quoted in Pieper, In Tune with the World, 13.
Stephen Charnock, “Discourse on the Existence and Attributes of God,” in The Works, Vol. 2 (Repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2010), 307.