Rhythm is important for more than music. Vital rhythms are unmistakably built into God’s creation. They are forceful and unbending. They are rhythms of life. When we get the rhythm, our lives work better–like good music. When we fight the rhythm, our lives are a mess–like me playing the drums.

When God created the world, He did so in a cadence–evening and morning, day one. Evening and morning, day two. Evening and morning, day three. Evening and morning, day four. Evening and morning, day five. Evening and morning, day six. Evening and morning, and on the seventh day, God ceased His work. Rhythm. Day and night, night and day, day after day–seven beats makes a week. Six beats and a rest.

If you have ever worked a graveyard shift, or stayed up all night at the hospital, you know what it is to fight the daily rhythm of life. Your eyes get heavy, your temper quick, your patience thin. You are out of time–fighting the rhythm. All it takes is a beat or two on time and you are better. It is the way God created us. It is the rhythm of life.

The daily rhythms–perfectly timed are put in place to remind us about God. The sun sets and reminds us that the earth was dark before God created light. The sun rises and reminds us that God brought the day. Evening and morning. Rhythm. A cadence to remind us who is in charge. The One who is in charge is the One who makes and keeps the rhythm.

Daily rhythms are easy to see, but they are not the only rhythms. The weekly ones are more difficult. God set us on a rhythm of six days of work and a day of rest–seven days with one set aside for the restoration of our souls. The day of rest was a day set aside holy to the Lord. It is the rhythm of life. It is built into us. Not everyone has this rhythm.

Just as fighting the daily rhythms play havoc with our lives, fighting the weekly rhythms play havoc with our souls. When we miss either the six beats of labor or the beat of rest and worship, we drain our souls. Able bodied people who disengage from a rhythm of worthwhile work become negative, irritable, lazy, difficult people. Likewise, when people ignore the seventh beat–working straight through the Sabbath rest, or playing through the day designated holy–their souls fatigue. It is a cadence we cannot ignore.

People do ignore it, though. Countless people beat out their lives without a sense of God’s rhythm–more and more people are doing it all the time. No one argues that their life is not life, or that the extra money they earn is not valuable, or that the fun they have is not real fun. It is. No one argues that I can beat a drum and that it is a real drum. It is. But it is certainly not music. The result of an off beat life or an out of time drum is noise.

Let’s all learn the rhythms of life–everyone will be happier! There was evening and morning and it was good.