January ‘LW’: True leisure

Our culture understands life as centered around the self: self-fulfillment, self-actualization, self-love. It might seem that a whole culture full of people seeking rest for themselves in the most prosperous and affluent society in human history might find it. But counterintuitively, people report ever-rising levels of anxiety, stress and depression.

For Christians, however, this situation is not so counterintuitive. God commands those things that are good for us, and He has commanded that we build our lives around love for Him and for one another. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. … [And] you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37–38).

Our culture has an impoverished view of leisure, one that will never bring true rest. In seeking our own pleasure above all else, we as a culture have lost a biblical sense of genuine leisure.

This issue of The Lutheran Witness takes up the topic of true leisure: “Living in tune with the Creator and the rest of creation … [and] learning to celebrate what God gives, embracing the joy of being His creature in His world,” as the Rev. Dr. Joel Biermann writes. The issue also explores how genuine leisure frees us to serve our neighbors without weighing the cost, and it takes up the related topics of the Third Commandment and Sabbath rest, including the recent trend of “digital Sabbaths,” or fasting from digital devices on Sundays.

You’ll also find the latest installment of our “Life in the Church Year” series, monthly articles on living in step with the liturgical seasons and feasts.

We are also launching two new series this year: “The Contemporary World,” which will feature commentary on current events as well as new-release movies and books; and “The Road to Convention,” which will unpack the structure of the Synod and the LCMS convention for curious readers in the months leading up to this summer’s Synod convention in Phoenix.

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Posted Jan. 16, 2026