Doing Sabbath
I recently attended the ‘Practising the Way’ course (based on the John Mark Comer book) at my local church and it was really fruitful for those of us who attended, myself included. Its aim has been to help us become Apprentices to Jesus in terms of helping us learn how to be with Jesus, how to be like him and do as he did. That has involved a fair amount of personal reflection, a reconsideration of how we currently live our lives and to commit to a ‘Rule of Life’ to allow that to happen.
One of the biggest ones is to practice ‘Sabbath’, something Jesus honoured and used to refresh himself. In a lot of ways -and for a lot of us I suspect- (re)introducing Sabbath is amongst the most significant changes to our lives that we can make. Over the decades Sabbath has become a gift that I suspect most of us rarely use. Jesus made it plain that “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath”. The point being that it is a blessing rather than a burden.
As we found out on the course though, it can be hard to honour the Sabbath, because we all lead such busy lives, and it has become very easy for the Sunday to be just another day on the weekly treadmill of life. However, the idea of Sabbath is that it is a time set aside to allow us to stop. To refrain from working, from wanting, from worrying etc.
What we have learnt though is that God wants us to use the Sabbath where we are in whatever situation we find ourselves in so it maybe that placing an entire day for non-work or rest is just not possible for you, if say family or friends come over, or if there is something urgent you have to prepare for the Monday etc. That means finding a period of time where you can rest and ‘stop’. If that is just one hour then that is fine. The important thing is to start a regular rhythm of the Sabbath so that it is a form of ritual for you because repetition is good for the mind and soul, and aim to gradually increase that period of time. Eventually over time you may find that you actually crave and look forward to your Sabbath time, and it will reap rewards for you in the gift it brings you.
The idea is to ‘start small’ and to think ‘subtraction not addition’, in other words do not add the Sabbath to your current busy life but think what you can cut out- do you for instance need to spend so much time on your mobile or connected devices? To my own personal horror I found out that I spend on average 3 hours a day on my mobile checking for messages, updates, or listening to podcasts etc. I have been able to reduce that by around 50% and able to use the saved time to practice a period of rest, where I do not carry out any work activity but just stop, rest and wait for Jesus to come.
What precisely you do during your period of Sabbath is though down to you. You may find it by lighting a candle, eating a Sabbath meal, going out for a walk (perhaps with a dog if you have one), reading scripture or spending precious time with your family or friends in good conversation. Whatever works for you, whatever gives you that spiritual rest we all need, you should aim to do, and to do it regularly. Our health and lives depend on it!
Tags: Jesus, Practising The Way, John Mark Comer, Sabbath