Keeping Sabbath
August 31st, 2006 » posted by Sarah
I’ve been thinking about sabbath-keeping lately. The first week of the semester - with all the rushing around and moving in and sorting out schedules and greeting old friends and making new ones - may not seem like the most obvious time to focus on Sabbath. But it is precisely because I’ve been feeling frenzied that I’ve been drawn to Sabbath.
And it’s more than nostalgia for vacations just past that’s got me thinking about sabbath-keeping. It’s recognizing that my mounting anxiety is a sure sign I need to rest. More specifically, it’s a sign I need to rest in God.
What does it mean to keep Sabbath? For many Christians it means setting Sunday aside as a day to go to church and to take a break from their weekday, workday lives. And those are excellent ways to observe the Sabbath, but sabbath-keeping is more than going to church and spending time away from work. Those things are what we do and sabbath-keeping isn’t about what we do. It’s about what God does.
What God does is love us. His will for us is that we allow ourselves to be loved by Him. Keeping Sabbath is a way of letting ourselves be loved by God. It means taking a break from the notion that the world’s well-being depends on us. It means deliberately and consciously setting aside our anxiety about what we need to do, recognizing the world isn’t dependent on our work — no matter how valuable or important that work may be — but on God working through us. It means recognizing God can handle whatever we’re anxious about, even if we can’t. It means resting in God.
So what does sabbath-keeping look like in practice? I keep Sabbath on Mondays (Sunday’s a workday for me - work I love, but work nonetheless). On Mondays I rest. I resist the temptation to turn on my computer or check my email or make to-do lists. I try not to plan anything. That doesn’t mean I don’t do anything: I get children off to school, I run, I read, I make dinner. But I also rest. And the way I rest is to spend the day offering up whatever worries, thoughts, plans, or to-do lists I’ve got to God. The things that are making me anxious don’t change, but my response to them does. I have permission not to worry - I’m keeping Sabbath. Not that I keep Sabbath to keep worries at bay. I keep Sabbath because God commands us to. But that’s God’s way of sweeping away the obstacles I put between myself and Him - the anxieties, the worries, the feeling of being worn-out. It’s a relief. A joyful, restorative relief.
Keeping Sabbath is a way of remembering we live and move and have our being in God. It’s a way of allowing God to love us and draw us closer to Him and a way of living out our thankful response. So in the midst of the busyness here at the beginning of the semester remember to begin where God wants us to begin — with keeping Sabbath.
May God’s peace be always with you.
Sarah+