I’ve recently read a few books which have spoken about the practice of Sabbath. The first book, Garden City, by John Mark Comer, was entirely devoted to the roles of work and rest in our lives. The second book, The Emotionally Healthy Leader, by Peter Scazzero, spoke about many internal and external facets of being a healthy Christian leader, but had a great (and challenging) chapter on the Sabbath. I would recommend both of these books if you’re looking for something to read that will help you grow spiritually.
The practice of the Sabbath
The practice of the Sabbath is about resting in God. It’s about an intentional break from work and productivity. It’s about recognizing that God created you as a human being, not a human doing. It’s about recognizing that God loves us even when we do nothing, and that even in our rest and play we can be worshiping God. After all, He is the creator of work and rest, of productivity and play; He created us to enjoy eating and drinking and recreation just as he created us to enjoy producing and inventing and building. Both work and rest are essential parts of human life, and worship to God is found in both.
I am not a pro at practicing the Sabbath. I don’t even think I completely understand the Sabbath. I have been trying to practice a weekly twenty-four hour Sabbath with my family for a few months now, somewhat successfully, but I know there is still a lot to uncover about just how God moves and blesses us through our rest in Him. However, one thing I have noticed already is how practicing the Sabbath increases the awareness of God’s love for us in the little things that may seem completely removed from “spiritual life,” and how even in the completely natural moments of life are found opportunities for worship and adoration of our God.
Worship apart from productivity
I’ve worked vocationally in the church for nearly a decade. I am thirty years old. That means I’ve worked in the church for nearly my entire adult life up to this point. I wouldn’t say that I’ve ever felt like God loved me based on my utility in the local church. I think I’ve always had a better understanding than that. I haven’t tied my worth in God’s eyes to my work for God. However, as I’ve learned a little bit about resting, I think I’ve uncovered that I have tied my worship of God to my doings for God.
Worship has meant Bible reading and church attendance and inviting people to church and acts of service. All these things are acts of worship. However, I believe what I’ve been challenged to understand is that worship is much more, and in some ways much easier. Worship is loving my wife and kids. It’s having a coffee with a friend. It’s looking out the French doors that lead to my back deck and watching the clouds skate by in the moonlit night sky. With an understanding of the Sabbath, of resting in God, just existing in God’s created world is an act of worship. We honor Him by the sheer acknowledgment that He is and that He created us in His image. And sometimes, that is enough.
God is present in the “unspiritual”
Now, I want to be clear for a moment that I’m not denigrating work. I’m not downplaying acts of service or worship by way of doing. God has clearly called us to have an active faith in the world. We are called to love and to serve our neighbors, we are called to the spiritual disciplines, we are told that if we neglect those around us, we are neglecting God. My intention isn’t to say that we now have an excuse to sit back and do nothing. After all, God says to work for six days and to rest for one. What I am saying is that I’ve been challenged to see God in all those little parts of my days that seem natural and unspiritual and plain. And as I’m learning to pick those out, it’s been good for my soul.
God is present all around us. He made the world around us to be enjoyed. Much damage has been done because of the fall, because of the selfishness of humanity, and so there is much to do by those who follow Christ to help restore the good world our God created. But there is also much in which we can sit back, breath deep, and realize, “God is in this moment. Right here. Right now. And this is an expression of His love toward me.”
I want to live in a deep awareness of those moments.
The Endeavor 