An Unobtainable Gift

I began my journey with taking the Sabbath seriously when I encountered anxiety in my life. If you’ve read my previous blogs, you know this. However, what I so intentionally left out was the fruitfulness of this practice in my life as I have applied it over the past year. I’ve become a better person, a better husband, a better father, and a better pastor. Why? Because I’m rested. I’ve experienced menuha and regularly experience it. This changes the way you live every day not just one day of the week.

When you give up and give in like I did you will finally experience the kind of rest you need that you just can’t get on your own. You’ll learn to live a life that reflects the sabbath-rest every day in the way you live life at a spiritual non-hurried pace. The Sabbath has long departed the American culture, but as Hebrews 4 reminds us there is still a sabbath-rest for the people of God. When sabbath-rest departs the community of faith we have fallen into the detrimental rhythms of culture…rather than the life-giving rhythms of creation and Christ. Practicing sabbath-rest is actually a way we demonstrate our faith and bear witness to our God to the world around us.

Did you catch the subtle change from “sabbath” to “sabbath-rest”?

This subtle change in language is so crucial. The Sabbath, like any spiritual practice, has minimum and maximum expressions for you to engage with. You could have a small sabbath moment where you close your eyes and take a few deep breaths before you begin your day. You could also have an extended sabbath, known as a sabbatical, in which you take months off from your normal labor in the world. Sabbath-rest is a spiritual discipline for us all to apply to our lives in minimum and maximum expressions in a way that stretches us to the point of growth.

God created the Sabbath, Jesus reimagined sabbath-rest, and Spirit supplies the menuha.

We must practice and prioritize this founding spiritual discipline in order to access the divine rest that is so different from the rest we create for ourselves. We tend to work in order to rest, but God’s rest is not something we earn…it is a realm always available to us that we can enter.

The challenge with keeping the discipline of sabbath-rest in our lives is how easy it is to fake. We can call it “a day off”..which we have already discussed is not actually sabbath-rest. We can disappear from the world, our friends, and even our family in the name of the “sabbath”, but in all actuality, our minds are filled with worry, frantically accomplishing odds and ends on our phones or in our homes. We can fool others into thinking we are practicing sabbath-rest, but you can’t fool God. Oh, and you can’t fake the rich fruit that comes from sabbath-rest either.

To experience sabbath-rest and its fruits you are going to have to strategize. How will this actually play out in my life? You are going to have to prioritize it. This means you are going to have to say “no” to some things that are good, even very good, to engage and enter the realm of the holiness of time. You are going to need accountability and integrity to keep practicing when life shifts and becomes demanding in a different way than it currently is. It is a choice you can actually make, and will have to make, and will have to keep making.

Perhaps you know all this to be true. You know that sabbath-rest is important. You know God wants and even commands you to it. Yet, somehow over the years, you have never actually practiced it regularly. I believe there is one core reason why we all hesitate to engage in this holy practice; it’s pride. 

Just as the idea of sabbath-rest is as old as time and written within the creation narrative; so too is the problem of pride. It was humankind that desired to “be like God” that led to their estrangement from God. It is our pride that keeps us distant from God and delighting in Him through sabbath-rest.

We have to recognize our weakness and our depravity before we are willing to accept our need for something in us and in our lives to change. You will need to acknowledge what you lack. You’ll need to give up and give in to this restorative and life-giving rhythm written upon the fabric of creation and Christ. It was Jesus who lived as a human and understands these weaknesses, which makes him approachable. It is because of his divinity that he can give us the grace and mercy of sabbath-rest that our souls long for. 

How might you cultivate regular rhythms of experiencing sabbath-rest in your life to receive the unobtainable gift of menuha?

Here’s how I currently practice it:

Daily. I try to begin the day with some exercise, worship music, and a cup of coffee with my family. I utilize Apple's focus to honor my hours of work and protect my hours at home. I remove my work email from my phone so that my mindset doesn’t shift when an email comes in late when I am at home with my family. I try to read in the evening to wind down and learn more about God. 

Weekly. We practice a traditional Jewish Shabbat from Friday at sunset to Saturday at sunset. This works for us because of my vocation as a pastor. We eat good food on Friday evenings with friends and family. We usually have candles and fresh bread, and say a blessing over the children. We turn off technology or limit it to “do not disturb” modes. We don’t do dishes, laundry, cleaning, tidying, etc. We spend quality time with one another, we laugh, we enjoy the quiet stillness, we go outside, read, eat good food, take naps, and whatever else strikes out delight.

Monthly. We spend a day together as a couple to catch up and reconnect in light of the demands of a toddler. We get out of town to do things we love and catch up with people we care for. We change our environment for a day or two because our environments are so persuasive in how they affect the way we see and navigate the world.

Quarterly. Each quarter of the year we try to take a vacation longer than a day or two. I’ll use this time to go on retreats or go to conferences. It is important to note that conferences can become draining, but if I navigate them with a little wisdom I have found them to be more encouraging and life-giving.

Annually. I go on a solitude retreat every year for three days to simply spend time with the Lord. There is no agenda, just time spent with the Lord delighting in his presence. 

These are my rhythms of menuha, of sabbath-rest, and they just seem to work for me right now. You will need to brainstorm rhythms for yourself. You’ll need to have some grace in the trial-and-error stage of this as you begin. You’ll need to prioritize and plan it. It’s the only way you will ever be able to enter the realm of time and experience the unobtainable gift of menuha that God is waiting to give your longing soul.

Grace and Peace,

Austin