Thoughts on the Sabbath (Isaiah 54-58)

When I was a kid we had a neighbor who wasn't allowed to play outside on Sundays.  It was part of "keeping the Sabbath holy."  I thought it was kind of silly, especially since there seemed to be some inconsistencies in the way they lived Monday through Saturday.  At any rate, now that I'm older and "wiser," I think there is legitimacy behind keeping a day of the week holy.  After all, God took a day off after working for six days, and if anybody could survive workaholism, it would be God.  But the command is to honor one day as a holy day of the Lord.  A person could read that and think that I am suggesting legalism, but I don't think I am.  At legalism's root is a desire to earn something with God, but at the root of this suggestion is to do something for oneself (perhaps two sides of the same coin).  If one day a week is given to God, then a person begins to take delight in the Lord.  What results from a person delighting in the Lord?  The life God has in store for him or her.  The forgetting of trivial matters that have little consequence in one's life.  Essentially, it's a re-centering of the will.  The Sabbath is important, and it was given to us for our benefit.  Now we get to choose whether or not we want to benefit from it.