Warren Zevon (you remember him – Ahhooo… Werewolves of London) died of lung cancer last year. Shortly before he died he appeared on the David Letterman show. He had been a friend of the show for years, sometimes filling in for band director, Paul Shaeffer, when he was vacationing. Dave devoted the entire hour to Zevon who performed his most recognizable tunes. At the end of their conversation Dave asked if there was a life lesson Zevon had learned that he could share with us all. Warren replied, “Yeah, enjoy every sandwich.”

I was thinking about that the other day in the drive-through at Wendy’s waiting to get a Junior CheeseBurger Deluxe, which is about all I can handle since my cancer surgery. It was the end of lunch rush, and I knew that most of the people we were in line with would be eating in their cars as they dashed back to work after waiting in a longer-than-usual line at the bank or post office. They would not be enjoying their sandwiches. They would be happy not to soil their shirts and blouses. “What is the point of ordering?” I thought, “when you have to wolf it down so quickly why not just order soylent green or something.” The thing is that when you have no time to enjoy your sandwich, having endless choices is meaningless.

In the latest edition of Utne Reader (January/February 2005) there was an article by Anjula Razdan (pp.59-62) entitled “Take Your Time: Why our busy nation needs to chill out.” It wasn’t a fluff piece about enjoying a hot bath with scented candles, but a serious consideration of the moral implication of the pace of life we live. Razdan asserts that “Lack of free time may be the ultimate moral issue,” that technology is forcing us to “live at speed, not depth,” and that perhaps the great appeal of George W. Bush, is that he represents a slower paced/anti-modern sensibility (as did President Reagan) which many of us long to embrace in defiance the multi-tasking overdrive we’re forced to maintain.

I have been forced to “stop”, since my surgery, and have been enjoying most sandwiches I have been eating. I agree that there is a moral dimension to this issue of time. I have known this from scripture for years, and have preached it. I have been forced to experience it. God sanctified the seventh day because on it he stopped working. God stopped. Why? Was he tired? No. We don’t believe, nor does the Bible teach that God is prone to human limitations like fatigue. There must be some moral value to just stopping then.

“Stop striving and know that I am God.” He says to us in Psalm 46.10. Stopping the struggle makes way for the time and thought it takes to begin to know God. God codified this value of stopping in the 10 commandments, where Sabbath keeping receives more attention than any other commandment. Although Sabbath keeping is not part of New Testament observance, Jesus assumes we will stop, taking time to fast and pray (Matthew 6.5-18). Jesus not only commanded it but lived it, frequently withdrawing to solitary places to pray (Luke 5.16).

We have a moral obligation to stop. God stopped, and made stopping a holy thing. Jesus found stopping a necessity, not a luxury. I know that what we stop from doing is usually important, often urgent, and that doing “nothing” seems like laziness, but prayer is not “nothing,” reflection is not “nothing,” thought is not “nothing” - and the quality of each is greatly diminished if we refuse to stop.