Reframing the Cheat Day
I rolled over to glance at my phone. Friday morning, 7:39 AM, with rays of sunlight gleaming through the window.
Oops. My alarm had gone off at 6:45, and the morning schedule didn’t leave a lot of space for sleeping in. I pulled my clothes on and stumbled into my toddler’s room, where 16-month-old Isaiah was snoring gently, curled into a ball in his crib, knees pulled up under his tummy. Wow, I thought. He didn’t move all night.
As much as I wanted to let my baby sleep longer, he was going to miss breakfast at school if we didn’t get going. As I placed my hand on his back, he rolled over, gave me the side eye, and swatted my hand away. No words were needed: Let me sleep, Mom.
No wonder. It was Friday. Isaiah is a fairly predictable child, after all. On Monday mornings he’s wide awake at 6:00, bouncing up and down in his crib and wondering why his parents aren’t raring to get started on the week. Tuesday mornings are a little more subdued, and by Wednesday, we’re all sleeping until at least 6:30. By Thursday the crankiness has set in, and Friday mornings are an all-out battle to get my child out of bed. Thankfully, weekends are a blessed reprieve, and nobody sees daylight until at least 9:00.
Wash, rinse, and repeat the next week.
And can’t we all relate? (Well, maybe not to the excitement on Monday mornings). But whether it’s an intense week of playing at daycare or a long week at the office, there’s not a single person on Earth who doesn’t look forward to a break from the hurry and activity of the everyday.
Now, it’s no secret that our Western culture doesn’t value rest. Striving and productivity are the idols to which we bow down all too often. A day off? Sure, but don’t let that time go to waste. Pay bills, get the car serviced, and get the yardwork done. If you dare take a day to rest, you’ll never catch up, right?
Sounds a lot like diet culture.
Most diets don’t give you a day off. “The key is consistency,” they’ll say. “Eat X number of macros and work out for X minutes a day. And try not to miss a day!” Even if you do take a “day off” from the diet, what is it called? A cheat day. The very word “cheat” implies you’re being sneaky, doing something that you don’t have to or don’t need to do.
Now, stick with me for a second, because this might sound a little nuts.
Do you think Jesus ever said to His disciples, “Don’t take a day off?”
Nope. Actually, He said the opposite. He commanded it. Mark’s Gospel records Jesus’s response to the Pharisees as they criticized His disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Jesus was referring to a position of the heart in working on the Sabbath, but His words have another implication: the Sabbath is a gift, given by a God who knows our need for rest.
I love how John Mark Comer describes God’s command to rest in his book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: “Maybe that’s why God eventually has to command the Sabbath. Does that strike you as odd? It’s like commanding ice cream or live music or beach days. You would think we’d all be chomping at the bit to practice the Sabbath. But apparently there’s something about the human condition that makes us want to hurry our way through life as fast as we possibly can, to rebel against the limitations of time itself. Due to our immaturity, dysfunction, and addiction, God has to command His people to do something deeply life giving – rest (159).”
Hold up. Read that line again.
“It’s like commanding ice cream. . . .”
If that’s true, that God commands us to set aside one day a week to delight in Him and life and ice cream and lazy days on the patio and family and good books and worship, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the extremes of diet culture are fundamentally anti-Sabbath. Because the Sabbath is a good, necessary gift by a God who cares most deeply about the spiritual condition of our hearts, we can delight in the practices that are life-giving and that point our hearts back toward Him. Even further, we can reject the message that diet culture (and our larger society) sends, that says we can’t take a day off or dare take time rest and play and worship.
Today is Friday. Tomorrow, I’ll be tempted to set my alarm early, to get a jumpstart on the day before Isaiah wakes up. But I know the truth: I need rest, as does my family. So we’ll sleep in, spend a lazy day outside, enjoy family time, and thank God for His goodness and provision.
We might even go out for ice cream.
Katelin Lundquist is, first and foremost, a child of God. She lives and works in northwest Arkansas with her husband Kevin, 1-year-old son Isaiah, and rescue puppy, Pippin. After battling disordered eating and compulsive exercise for over 20 years, Katelin is embracing recovery through faith-based nutrition counseling, intuitive eating, and Health At Every Size. She is currently a student at Dallas Theological Seminary pursuing a Master's in Biblical and Theological Studies. In her spare time, she enjoys reading theology, writing, and dancing when nobody's watching.
