Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
But despite these words, rest- true, restorative, soul rest remains elusive for most of us. Our lives are filled with the crush of deadlines, meetings, and responsibilities causing us to scurry to and fro flitting from one task to the next. Our society demands and celebrates continuous productivity and achievement. To spend time intentionally resting and, heaven forbid, accomplishing nothing, feels wrong and wasteful.
Yet from the very beginning, God calls his people to rest. The writer of Genesis tells us when God created the heavens and the earth, he rested on the seventh day. And as the Old Testament unfolds God calls his people to emulate his rhythm of rest by practicing Sabbath, setting aside the seventh day of the week for resting in his gracious provision. In the New Testament Jesus and his disciples sought times of rest following periods of being poured out for others (See Matthew 14:13 and Mark 6:30-32).
But what does it mean for us to practice sabbath? We are not Jewish, and our society is far from oriented by rhythms of work and rest. By sabbath we do not only mean the Sabbath day and keeping it holy by refraining from doing work. But by sabbath we also mean soul-replenishing, life-giving, holy rest. The kind of rest we need after being constantly poured out through serving, loving, bearing witness, and patterning our lives after Jesus. The kind of holy rest God took on the seventh day of creation, and the kind of rest Jesus and his disciples were seeking when they withdrew to “a quiet place” (Mark 6:31).
To practice sabbath and truly rest in God, is to declare our dependence and our finiteness, our frailty and our need, our limits and our humanness. By practicing sabbath I am acknowledging that what I have accomplished is enough and I am giving God room to work in the midst of and in despite of my human limits of time, energy, health, etc. And we need this perspective shift of sabbath regularly. But what does it look like to practice sabbath in our modern, non-Jewish context?
The practice of sabbath is unique to each person while some guiding principles are the same. For all, sabbath practice involves ceasing from work, from buying, from consuming, and from stress and worry. These things are set aside for a period of time and replaced with life-giving, soul-replenishing, restful activities done either alone or in community with others. For some, the quiet of fishing or hiking is sabbath. For others it may be running, rock climbing, or cycling, while still others may find holy rest while creating or building, reading or writing, playing or listening to music, baking or feasting with friends, taking a nap or playing a board game. These may sound quite a bit like hobbies, and admittedly many of these are hobbies. But what differentiates a sabbath practice from a hobby is intention. The goal of sabbath is to cease our everyday striving for the purpose of spiritual renewal, to connect with God and let him renew us, essentially dwelling with him in a thin space, a space where the distance between heaven and earth is thin and God seems closer somehow. We are not merely fishing. We are fishing with the intention of being with God while we are fishing, listening to God, being aware of his presence, talking to him, breathing deeply in his presence. We are not merely spending time around the table with friends, but we are feasting with the intention of being present to God in our joy and delight, noticing him at work in our midst.
The Practice: Resting with God
For the month of July, we are going to practice sabbath together. Each week of this month, set aside 2-4 hours to practice sabbath. You can certainly do this for longer than this, one whole day each week is ideal, but for most of us that is a radical departure from our weekly rhythm and finding 2 contiguous hours each week of the month is challenge enough. You can practice sabbath alone or in community with your family or friends. Regardless of what you choose to do during these hours, begin the time intentionally. Read Matthew 11:28-30, and pray inviting Jesus to refresh you during this time. Then, move slowly and intentionally through the time, not seeking to achieve or accomplish anything, but simply to be present with God who promises to be with us always.
May these hours spent in restful, holy leisure awaken our hearts to our dependence on our Creator and reorient our lives around his rhythm.
