The Gift of Sabbath
Several years ago, we had an opportunity to go to Mexico right before Thanksgiving with extended family. The two days leading up to our trip had been a whirlwind of chaos, as we realized our girls’ passports had expired only 48 hours before we were to leave. Frantic phone calls were made to people who knew people, multiple trips taken to downtown Houston, and finally, we were set. The trip came and went. Memories were made, excursions experienced, and conversations had. At the end of that same week, we crammed in a Thanksgiving meal with other extended family in Oklahoma and rushed back to Houston. My pastor husband would be preaching that Sunday, and subsequently preparing for the busy Christmas season at our church. The following Wednesday at elder’s meeting, there was a devotional presented on the gift of Sabbath. The intersection of the devotional, combined with the exhaustion of my husband following a vacation led to meaningful conversations between Matt and the elders that something needed to change. The conversation led him on a personal exploration of the concept of biblical Sabbath. We both knew there was something in this principle that had eluded us up to this point in our journey with Christ. We were deeply convicted to learn about it and practice it, knowing that the most ideal vacation in the world would not relieve us from the soul-level exhaustion we felt. We knew it was unsustainable.
In the following weeks, he read and explored what other pastors and believers had uncovered in their own journeys about soulful rest and the faith-filled act of Sabbath. God had identified His own people by this biblical rhythm in the Old Testament, and then Jesus revisited about its purpose in the New Testament. “Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27 NIV). The more we read and discovered about it, the more we knew without a doubt that this was a practice that we needed in our lives desperately. He even integrated it into his December sermon series called “Unwrapped,” referring to the good gifts God gives us that we often leave rejected and set to the side. The discussion was oriented around the concepts of stop, rest, delight and meditate. It gave a framework to help us understand what we were making space for and why it mattered so much.
Matt wanted to find a gift to memorialize this new journey we would take as a family together. He had decided that our rhythm would look similar to Jewish Sabbath in timing—6pm Friday to 6pm Saturday. I found a lamp from Pier One that would hold a tea light candle to commemorate the time and give a visual to us that it was Sabbath. January 2020 found us hustling and bustling at our normal pace Sunday through Thursday. On Friday’s, it even looked more break-neck because I was trying to speed through those house to-do’s that we normally knocked out over the course of the weekend. The first month was challenging and uncomfortable. But delight began to surprise us even from the first weekend we tried it. Some of the surprises of it came in the form of space to enjoy things or events as a family that we would’ve normally have. We had margin to take in some sporting events that our kids weren’t even a part of, and enjoyed cheering in the stands and having conversations with families. Another delight was prioritizing the principle of “together.” Whenever possible, we tried to structure our Sabbath to create delight together. One weekend friends were moving into their new home. Our girls were attending a student event that weekend, so after breakfast together and a walk, we helped our friends move. Even though most wouldn’t have considered that a “delightful” thing to do with Sabbath, the fact that we were together, with nothing else tugging on our minds or time, made us present and available to share in the delight with our friends of moving into their newly built home. There is space for napping, for reading, for savoring a meal together, for prayer and meditation. It has made space to say “yes” to some events and experience them differently because the event sits the margin of Sabbath without a cluttered day around it. Sabbath is the intentional setting aside of the normal duties and disciplines in order to enjoy---enjoy Him, each other, and maybe some sweet experiences that we miss in our crammed lives. It is an act of faith as well, affirming that we do not hold OUR world, or THE world, together. We can rest, and do as our Father modeled for us. It has been life-transforming for us.
When the world jolted to a halt a few months later in March 2020, we were already in a rhythm of practicing Sabbath. We had already starting getting more comfortable with a less cluttered calendar and margin. Mental soundtracks that we had started playing in our minds became even more essential: “We don’t hold our world together. You do, Father. We trust you.” The Sabbath is a weekly opportunity to declare that to ourselves and to Him. What a good, good Father He is to us! Our Creator God made us, limits and all, knows our deepest needs. He calls us into what is best for us. It would appear we are not made to run at the speed of light 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. It takes intention to step off the treadmill our culture models for us, and embrace the rhythm that has identified God’s people since He gave them the command in Exodus 20. When we do honor it, we are invited to feel the deep joy that comes from resting in our Father’s care and provision. We can enjoy all the things that living at the speed of life doesn’t let us savor. I love a to-do list, but setting that list aside for a 24 hour period for the purpose of rest, savor, margin, delight and relationships has me convinced. You start to look with longing for it and it informs and sustains your work the other six days of the week. Read the last few verses of this “Psalm for the Sabbath Day,” Psalm 92:12-15:
12“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
13 planted in the house of the Lord,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green,
15 proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;
he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”
Notice verbs like “flourish,” “grow,” and “yield fruit.” Notice the adjectives like “fresh and green,” even “in old age.” Our Heavenly Father wants us to be fruitful till the end of our days, and He knows how we will get there. Find a way to follow Christ the life-giving rhythm of Sabbath. Make space for what He wants to invite you into. Stop, rest, delight and meditate. He is not only inviting us into a ceasing of activity, but a ceasing from our self-saving works. “There remains then a Sabbath-rest for the people of God . . . “ (Hebrews 4:9 ESV) It is by faith that we receive it, and rest soundly in it.
