I have a confession.
As a “Type A,” check-list oriented, achievement-driven, goal-striving, self-motivated guy… I struggle to regularly practice the sabbath in my week.
I’m getting better at it. But the thing about the sabbath is that if you don’t observe it, this is one of the 10-commandments that will actually catch up with you – it will force you to observe it – it’s just called a different name when that happens: Burnout. I’ve met the sabbath in burnout before, and frankly, I’d rather not meet it there again. So, these days I’m trying hard to be better about something that should be so simple – finding regular rest in the schedule of my week.
Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word, “Shabbot,” which means TO STOP. In ancient, Jewish practice, people got very legalistic about the practice of the Sabbath. They actually invented 39 categories of stuff you couldn’t do, your family couldn’t do, your kids couldn’t do, and even your livestock couldn’t do when Sabbath rolled around every week. The idea went from: “Let’s spend a day a week resting and reflecting on God together in our relationships!” to, “Let’s play a giant game of spiritual “Gotcha!” The ritual and routine became legalistic in the extreme.
The problem is that the Sabbath was never meant to be legalistic. Just like everything else in the Bible – it’s relational. God didn’t take a break on the 7th day because He was tired. He took a break because He made human beings and he wanted to spend time with them. That’s why keeping the Sabbath is #4 on the list of the 10 Commandments – as Israel was coming out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt, God sent Moses up to the top of a mountain and gave him the 10 laws – and really what these were meant to be were instructions on how to now live as free people. It had been a while since they had lived that way, so God gave them the 10 Commandments as instructions about how to live AND STAY free.
This is why when Jesus comes along He told people in Mark 2:27: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” What Jesus is saying is that the Sabbath was always meant to be a gift for you, not a burden on you. Without it, you’ll end up living in slavery instead of freedom. And by the way, you don’t need to live in Egypt to be a slave. You can be a slave to expectations. A slave to anxiety. A slave to insecurity. A slave to misunderstanding. Sabbath is a way for free people to stay living like they’re free.
And yes – that freedom comes with limits. The Sabbath is a limit. But it’s a limit that produces life. It’s kind of a funny thing – in the creation story in Genesis, God blesses animals, and he blesses people, and He blessed the 7th day of rest. That’s kind of a weird combination, right? But what scholars point out is that God blesses the things that are capable of producing more life. Rest produces more life.
So how do you practice sabbath in your week? Let me give you 4 ingredients that have helped me in my own practice. Maybe they’ll help you, too.
1. Pause
Remember – what does the word “Shabbot” mean? Sabbath means to stop. We tend to live as though everything is an emergency, even when it really isn’t. So practicing the sabbath is really a way of resisting the tyranny of the urgent by pushing pause on our urgency. And when you push pause on your urgency, you’re telling whatever insecurity, whatever anxiety, and whatever thing inside you is driving it: You aren’t God. You’re incapable of bringing me more life, or bringing life-producing blessing into my life – only God can do that.
So, your sabbath day SHOULD look different than the rest of your week. Here’s a good test for you – if someone were to watch your Sabbath day on mute, would they be able to tell that day is any different from the rest of your life? It’s ok to work on your car on your sabbath. It’s ok to fix something around your house. It’s ok to clean your bathroom. Sometimes a clean house leads to a rested spirit – it does for me, anyway. The challenge is to make sure that the activity isn’t wound based, and it’s actually based in you enjoying it.
2. Play
Make a big breakfast. Watch sports. Dial up a great movie on your favorite streaming service. Indulge in some good food. Do a long workout at an enjoyable pace. Spend time with the people closest to you – this is about bucket filling stuff that you do in relationship with the people closest to you.
In my house when my kids were young, every Sunday night we did something called popcorn, shake, and a movie night – we’d just watch movies together and eat a bunch of unhealthy food. For you, it might be fishing. It might be building something. Go to a game – whatever – the point is that sabbath needs to have an element of play – something in it that’s a bucket filling activity. And it’s not self-indulgent. It SHOULD involve the relationships closest to us.
3. Praise
Eugene Peterson, one of my favorite pastors and people, said that the sabbath needs to have some kind of marking on it, some kind of practice, where we intentionally thank the giver for the gifts we experience. Many of us will take a day off. But not all of us will mark the day by making it holy in any way, shape, or form – it’s all pause and play with no praise.
For many of us, Sunday is a natural day to make our sabbath because we go to church as a part of it and naturally have a moment of praise when we are there. Whatever day you pick, you need to figure out what this could look like in your life. Your Sabbath has got to have a pocket of praise.
It could be waking up, making some good coffee, and making a list of things you’re grateful for today. It could be listening to some worship music. It could be starting the day with prayer and journaling. As Christians, we don’t believe that we move toward the thriving side of the mental health spectrum by just resting our bodies and “unplugging” – we believe that part of our well-being is actually a spiritual thing – that truly healthy people acknowledge that there is a God, and we are not Him. One writer I admire a lot says, “Sabbath is a form of resistance against the pull of living a Godless life.”
In other religions, God is bound to geography. In Islam, God is in Mecca. In Buddhism, God is in the out of body metaphysical space. In Christianity, God is with you. He is Immanuel. God is not off in the distance, He is near. His Spirit is within you. He’s waiting for you in this day of rest, calling to you: “Let’s go make this day holy together!” It’s got to have praise.
4. Prep
If you’re going to practice the sabbath, I’ll be honest with you – there are things I’ll actually work harder at during the week to make sure I don’t have to do them on Saturday, which is usually when I try to practice sabbath. Emphasis on USUALLY and TRY. I’ll work harder to get things done during the week so I can actually unplug on Saturday a little bit more.
And this is what I’ve found as I’ve experimented with this in my own life – in the flow of the week, I will actually do more and be more productive in my week IF I take Saturdays to rest. There’s a reason I write my messages at 4am on Sundays. I’ll do the outline of them during the week, but then I write them out on Sundays – and the reason is that I’m sharper, clearer, faster, more focused, more present and more productive if I’m rested.
That doesn’t mean I get this perfect all the time. That’s ok! Sabbath, just like the rest of life, is often way messier than we’d like. Hebrews 4: 9-11 says: So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.
The goal isn’t supposed to be how do you get sabbath perfect – don’t make this a legalistic thing. It’s about doing your best. If we’re going to be a non-anxious presence in the world, we need to ask: How do I take a step? It’s about progress, not perfection. We’re so addicted to speed. For many of us practicing the sabbath is going to be a big adjustment. This is going to mess with your life.
And you want to know the truth? That’s the point – the point is that it’s supposed to mess with your life. It’s supposed to be different so we can live out our freedom, not our slavery, and be a non-anxious, life-giving presence to the people around us and the situations we find ourselves in every week.