Taking Back Sundays

As a child, I remember lazy Sundays. They were lazy because there was nothing else to do – church, home, and lots of football. It wasn’t just my family, it was everyone’s. Sunday was a day apart from the rest of the week. Nothing happened on Sunday. There was nowhere to go on Sunday. Sundays were long and luxurious.

Then things changed. I think we thought it was a good idea to repeal the Blue Laws. They were annoying. You couldn’t go to the market on Sunday. The pharmacy wasn’t open on Sunday. Monday through Saturday had gotten so busy. It seemed only practical to add another day of business to get all of it done. We wondered why were adhering to some silly old Puritanical laws anyway. Some in the state weren’t even Christian, why should they “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy”. Sunday had potential. It was an unused resource.

At first it was kind of exciting, being able to transact business on Sunday. Suddenly there was more time to get things done. You didn’t have to get everything done Monday through Saturday, because now there was Sunday. Sunday soon became just another day for many of us. Sure it was part of the weekend, but you could now fill it in with kids’ sports games, grocery shopping, picking up birthday presents. . . Down time was a thing of the past.

In that change, we began and / or amplified a much larger change. Sunday family dinners became a relic of the past. Big dinners are now relegated to holidays and the occasional birthday. Sunday services at church started to become optional. If you could fit it into your busy schedule, you might go. There were now better things to do on Sunday; chores to be done or perhaps working yourself at the market, department store, or pharmacy.

Sunday no longer was a day of respite and rejuvenation. We were now fully plugged into the 24/7 society. These days, I have even found that you can bank on Sunday (What happened to good old banker’s hours?).

I ask is 24/6 ok? Can we turn back the clock and take back Sundays? We still have some vestiges of the Blue Laws i.e. no alcohol sales and no mail on Sundays, but there is even talk of changing those. Before we do, we better think not of what we are getting (the ability to get mail on Sundays or buy beer that you forgot to get the rest of the week), but what are we losing.

Sundays are days of family, fellowship, respite. For many, it is a day of prayer. Sunday should not just be another day in our hectic lives but a day to celebrate all that we have, a day to come back together with family, a day of peace in an otherwise crazy world. And if we disserve that, so to do the people working at the pharmacy, the market, and the department store. Let’s rebuild the family by giving it time to be together. Let’s regain our sanity by giving ourselves a little vacation every week. Let’s take back Sundays – for our community, for our families, for ourselves.

Perhaps we could all reply as my friend Lisa does when clients ask to meet her on Sunday, “I’m sorry. I reserve Sundays for my family.”