Dr. Howard Cohenour is my uncle, a retired Doctor living in Tulsa Oklahoma.
One of the very vivid images I have of my childhood is spending time with my cousins, my uncle's family, in Tulsa Oklahoma. My Uncle Howard is a doctor, a surgeon for many years. When we would spend long weekends and summer vacations he was always up before any of us were, off to the hospital to see his patients. He would return about the time the rest of us got up. I remember the stories of the long hours he worked, the nights away from home seeing patients or studying for some important surgery. He is from the WWII generation - he worked hard at a job he was good at.
But I also remember the weekends, the weeks at the lake. I lived in Dallas but I grew up at Grand Lake of the Cherokees. Grand Lake is located near Claremore, Oklahoma, northeast of Tulsa. My family and my uncle's family would spend summer vacations there. We swam, we sailed, we boated, we played Frisbee… we had all the fun kids could have during the summer. Leading the fun was my uncle.
My uncle didn't just fish, the term fish assassin is a better term. He fished long and hard. He taught both my dad and me to fly fish and to deep sea fish. After early mornings up fishing he would be back by breakfast, with breakfast! After a short nap, he would lead us off to boating, swimming, or some other activity. He had so much energy - us teenagers had a hard time keeping up with him. His motto which I heard often was "Work hard, play hard."
We do live in a time when we have to work hard. The pressures of the economy loom as an ever present threat to our jobs and livelihoods. The ever increasing demands made by bosses give rise to higher and higher levels of stress. Our families are pulled by sports, school functions, and church activities so much so that too often quality family time is in the car. Times are hard. You know it, so do I.
But we also need time to play. For us kids it was swimming, boating, playing in the sun. For my uncle it was fishing. What is it for you? Time spent just playing, time spent just doing fun things is the time when we recharge our batteries. It is the energy we need to face another week of stress and demands.
I think this what God meant when he said,
"Six days you shall labor." We know what labor means today. We have
to work hard. Life is hard. Life is a labor. The verse goes on "but on
the seventh day you shall rest from all your labors." God knew that we
humans need to rest. We need to take time for him each week, in the Sabbath
rest of God. We also need to rest from our labors. Set aside the demands,
the work, the plowing, and the computer work to rest, to play. This is God's
way of refueling the heart, the soul, the body and the mind.