One of my childhood memories was for loud TV ads about monster truck rallies and dirt track races. We knew when the events were, "SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY" being screamed at top volume. Since I don't watch much broadcast TV these days I don't know if those ads are still around, but I'm sure there is something still like it.
I don't know if I ever remember Sundays being thought of as a Sabbath. Likely not...as a family many Sundays we would go out to dinner at Lady Classen cafeteria in Oklahoma City almost every Sunday; it was one of those old time, old people places, much like the one my friend Derek once mentioned in which 'You know, most of these people will be dead in 5 years.' Lots of fried chicken, plain jello, and overcooked vegetables; my dad loved it because there he could get rhubarb pie. Later on we would go to Wyatt's cafeteria in Edmond which was newer and bigger but the food was basically the same. At least there some of my friends were also dragged after church and we would mock the food while my parents sat elsewhere knowing that at a cafeteria '...at least everybody can find something that they like to eat!'
Sundays involved church, but so much more. As teenagers in our youth group we would often have activies, such as going to a pizza place or having a devotional or a game night. And so worship time, at 10am and 6pm, was only part of what Sunday was supposed to be about. Yes, we were there to worship God...but we are also there to get ready for our busy activities, scout out members of the opposite sex, and get out of the houses in which 3 TV channels was all there was.
Today there is a lot of hand-wringing about how internet-addicted kids are, and that's a very real thing in my home and in many others. Sundays are no more immune from this struggle than any other day...but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that 'back in my day, everything was swell!' It wasn't. There will always be this problem for us worldly people in that we have distractions that distance us from God. And it's not even so much a Sunday problem...shouldn't every day be holy to the Lord? Yes, we set aside time to come to church on Sunday (and, if we are really pious, for Sunday school!), but having Sundays simply being representative of a portion of our life is never enough.
I'm not sure I know the answer to this. Maybe this is why returning to some concept of the Sabbath is not such a bad idea in 2019. We need to have time dedicated to God...but don't let that fool us into thinking that dividing our lives into particular sections is enough. All needs to find a purpose in our devotion to the Lord.
