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March 1 - August 23, 2020
And then somehow, by some miracle of grace, we heard a voice: Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. At the time, we might not have even recognized whose voice it was: we’d grown that deaf.
What I know is this: In the same way that beginning a New Year with a clean slate and fresh hope motivates us toward change, finding a rhythm of rest in a busy world makes life radically different.
But God created rest to be as natural as breathing. Sabbath is the exhale required after six days of inhaling our work.
In Jewish tradition, on Sabbath, the eldest woman of the house recites a blessing over the candles no later than eighteen minutes before sundown: I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. After lighting each candle, the woman moves her hands in a circular motion three times as if bringing the warmth of the flame closer in and then recites a blessing: Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us to be a light to the nations, and who gave us Jesus our Messiah, the
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Guilt is one of the main roadblocks for making Sabbath a reality. Guilt about the things we leave undone, and guilt when we don’t rest perfectly. Lofty expectations about a day set apart for rest keep us immobilized, and Sabbath elusive. Guilt is usually a sign that you’ve made rest a routine with strict rules. If you struggle with guilt about taking time to rest, then perhaps you are trying to implement a Sabbath routine instead of a rhythm of rest.
Shabbat is a Hebrew word used for Sabbath, which means “to cease.” We must cease in order to rest.
“Belonging is being accepted for who you are, and fitting in is changing who you are to be accepted.” I am dumbfounded. My teenage boy, growing into manhood, nails it. Brené Brown describes it this way: “Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be in order to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.”
But the more we fill our lives with yeses, even noble and good ones, who we are slowly drifts into obscurity until all that remains is a shadow of our former self, void of purpose and definition. When we believe there is never enough time to do everything, we become aimless and forget why we are here on the earth. “Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content,” writes the teacher in Ecclesiastes (1:8 NLT). Sabbath reminds us that we belong because we are already accepted. Rest requires that we be
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With rest, I noticed God-moments I might have missed before. My prayers grew clearer. Studying the Scripture became more meaningful. When life was rushed, I felt like I was reading a cookbook backward—nothing connected or made sense. Now I felt more attuned to God’s voice in the Bible. Sometimes you have to slow to a stop and reset before you can experience divine presence. My hunger to know God increased as I learned to develop a healthy rhythm in life and rediscovered the wonder of rest.3
You may not have time for a whole day to rest, but a small window of time here and there cultivates a Sabbath heart. Pausing for prayerful listening, even for a few minutes, brings everything that is important back into focus. We need whitespace for hearing the truth more clearly.
“What do you want me to do for you?”
“If faith is being sure of what we hope for, then being unsure of what we hope for is the antithesis of faith, isn’t it? Well-developed faith results in well-defined prayers, and well-defined prayers result in a well-lived life.”4
Faith is a brave surrender, an unwavering commitment to trust in a Savior who takes care of the details despite hurdles and hardships. He longs for us to trust him with rest as much as the other parts of life.
But when we rest, even for a few moments, we can hear his voice with greater clarity.
If his precepts are trustworthy, then his rules are for our good, not imprisonment.
Our soul remembers what the mind easily forgets. What we pour into our soul today may seem inconsequential, yet it will provide a stabilizing anchor for the future. But when our anchor is made of the false material of legalism, freedom is stuck on the bedrock of false teaching.
God’s creation is a life-giving inhale for all of us, and Sabbath is the exhale. Without the exhale our breathing becomes shallow or nonexistent.
In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield writes, “The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.”
Resistance is an outcome of self-reliance. And self-reliance almost always leads to self-doubt.
