You might’ve heard this week that the Federal Government has landed a deal on new industrial relations laws which will entitle employees to be able to ignore texts and calls from their bosses outside of work hours.
Unions are annoyed that the bill won’t include penalties for employers who do reach out off-the-clock, while employer groups are concerned that this will impact on “flexible working.”
I’m struck that this legislation is being called “the right to disconnect” or “unplug laws.” I don’t know what kind of mental picture you get when you hear those titles, but it makes me think of the Matrix. It assumes that to work is to become tethered to our job, not so that it can give us life, but so that life can be drained from us to power the machine.
Rest, then, becomes a way to recharge ourselves, so that we have just enough energy to give to our jobs the next day. The argument, then, for these new laws is that 11pm work emails make us like our phones: constantly ripped off the charger before we’re off low-power mode.
The Bible gives us a much bigger picture of rest. Rest is not just instrumental – making it possible to do more work in the long run. Rest, at its best, exposes the whole image of being plugged as a fantasy.
All of us are haunted by the ‘work under the work’ —that deep need to prove and save ourselves, to gain a sense of worth and identity. This work under the work – the desire to gain power, approval, comfort or control through our work is why we’ve seen a steady chipping away of the work/non-work distinction over the last 50 years (and especially since the invention of the smart phone).
But the very fact of our need to sleep teaches us that the world will keep spinning on its axis whether we are toiling or not. Rest humbles us. Doubly so when our rest is paired with the gospel.
When the gospel and our rest meet, they show us that our attempts to do the work under the work are futile and that we can be free from the need to earn our salvation through our work. That on the cross Jesus worked and then finished his work. His finished work gifts us a deep reservoir of refreshment that continually rejuvenates us, restores our perspective, and renews our passion.
So I’m glad this legislation is going through. I hope it gifts us all a bit of brain-space to notice our smallness, and the Lord who lifts us up.
grace and peace,
Steve