Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

by A.J. Swoboda

A significant body of research suggests that even thinking about work is a stressful, anxiety-inducing activity.24 The problem is that when we think about work, it becomes work in and of itself.25 When we keep a Sabbath, it reorients the way that we think. Instead of thinking in terms of production, the day becomes about presence.

In many cases, we are adrenaline addicts; we yearn for stimulation to bring about an emotional and psychological high.

So much of our work is mind work. Most of our tiredness is mental exhaustion. Our brains need a Sabbath, especially from a content-driven culture in which we are bombarded with more ideas and information than at any other time in human history.

The silence of the Sabbath allows our mind time to kick up its feet and rest. Such a move may seem contrary to our idolatry of distraction. But in that silence we will find a kind of freedom that gives us space to apply our minds to the goodness and glories of the living God.

Lerman’s research is summarized by Marva Dawn: “According to Lerman’s theory, failing to rest after six days of steady work will lead to insomnia or sleepiness, hormonal imbalances, fatigue, irritability, organ stress, and other increasingly serious physical and mental symptoms.”32 What we have here is a fascinating harmony between the biblical and scientific witness. This research illuminates a seemingly direct relationship between human well-being and the need for physical rest. In fact, when a person does not rest properly, their blood pressure will escalate to unhealthy levels.

The principle is this: the Sabbath is opposite day. By that, I mean that it is wise to aim our Sabbath activities around what we do not ordinarily do for work. Maybe you will need to pick up sticks on the Sabbath. Maybe you work the land and need a day to sit and read. For those whose work is physically demanding, the Sabbath may be most restful when it does not include physical activity. For others whose work is more sedentary or mental, perhaps physical activity is what is needed. The Sabbath offers us a counterrhythm to whatever we have been doing for the workdays.

we must begin to critique any notion of heaven that is used as a distraction from the pain and difficulty of the world God has placed us in. Think about heaven—just make sure it makes you earthly good.

Heaven is why we remain to serve the world around us. Heaven is not escapism. Neither is the Sabbath. Sabbath, if one desired, could easily be utilized as an escape hatch from reality. But it is not an escape from the chaos of our lives; rather, it is finding God in the chaos. The Sabbath is not a clever way to escape responsibility. It is not letting the world spin out of control into the oblivion of chaos. It is, however, taking a day to cease our work of trying to fix or control the world.

The way we now receive news leads to “compassion fatigue,” a real onset of exhaustion from the concerns of the world. Studies show how the flooding of news actually harms our ability to have real compassion and do something helpful.

Sabbath is good escapism. It offers us a much-needed respite before being sent back to the world where we love God and serve others.

Sabbath is not just a day of rest or family or good food. Sabbath, rather, is a structured reminder each week for all of God’s people together to return to their God, to their Maker, who intricately crafted them with love. The Sabbath day is the day when we all together run back home to the presence of God in our sacred lives.

In his book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam describes the ways in which Western society is increasingly living in isolation and individualism. Putnam famously said that instead of having friends, we watch Friends on television. We no longer truly need each other. We think we can fulfill all our own needs with the click of a button. And in many cases we can. Because of this, we trade the kind of community that is forged around a Sabbath for a “sense” of community wherein we are not vulnerable to each other in real and tangible ways.

Generally, people asked me two main questions. The first was “What do I do on the Sabbath?” Such a question is very American, isn’t it? What do I do? We are addicted to doing. Being is not even a category we are able to entertain. The second was “How do I make time for the Sabbath?” Again, we cannot make time. We are human. God makes time. And the assumption that we can make time is dangerously hurtful to our well-being.

Sabbath-keeping is so hostile to American Christianity because Americans often worship their time. We think time is ours. Our language is telling. We think we can make time and kill time.

There are nine commandments that, if I chose to break, I might lose my ministry over. But if I did not keep a Sabbath day, I would probably get a raise.

It isn’t a mistake the Gospels tell us the disciples slept while Jesus prayed in Gethsemane. Americans generally want an experience, a product, the bells and whistles—God is simply not enough for us.

Teach someone not to Sabbath and they will be hostile to it and pass that along to the next generation. Teach someone to Sabbath and you will raise up a generation that knows how to rest in the presence of God.

What if the church became the best place in the world to learn how to rest? This is an exhausting world, friend. Everyone is weary. Anxiety is rampant. Whenever I’m preaching and I catch a glimpse of someone nodding off in the back, I cannot help but celebrate a little inside. That’s okay. Nod off. This is the church. And there should be no safer place to rest than this.

The test of time is not a litmus test for truth. That is, just because something is not believed anymore does not mean that it is not true. Just because everyone believes something does not make it true. Truth is truth. Scripture says that Sabbath is never antiquated, never old.

Conversations that take place on the Sabbath must be guarded, for they can easily lead to work in heart and mind.

I have had to come to terms with the reality that what is restful for me is not always what is most restful for my wife. And that difference is sacred.

my own marriage may not have survived had it not been for our Sabbath commitment, which has helped us rethink boundaries with the world and each other and even helped us cultivate intimacy. Sabbath is a gift to marriages.

Ironically, rest takes a lot of work to enjoy. Similarly, to create a new society in which Sabbath is the centerpiece will not come easily—it will require intentionality and forethought and may require us to think very differently about the way we live.

The Sabbath has deep economic ramifications. Sabbath living has implications on the lives of others. Ask yourself: Are there ways your Sabbath is forcing other people to work?

Be aware that it is easy to slip into neurotic modes of getting everything done before the Sabbath. Being neurotic is not sustainable, nor is it enjoyable for those around you. Perhaps make it your goal to enter the Sabbath with at least something on your to-do list so you do not become a taskmaster who must check everything off before the Sabbath.

While many countries in the West may be experiencing great financial upswings, we forget that those upswings are often built on the backs of the underprivileged and the poor. And that our national economy often booms on those who work too much or are paid too little.

Before the Enlightenment, the Sabbath day was almost universally respected and honored in Christian societies and countries. The day served the purpose of bringing people together around worship. Today, the Sabbath has largely been replaced by activities centered on consumerism, sports, or recreation.

With all of this convenience, it is easy to forget the price tag of such conveniences: others. A 24/7 world requires a 24/7 workforce. The result is a kind of Sabbath inequality where some rest and some cannot.

In a 24/7 world, we only Sabbath when we are forced to by circumstance.

As Judith Shulevitz prophetically writes, “Americans, once the most Sabbatarian people in the earth, are now the most ambivalent on the subject.”24 As a nation, we have replaced Good Friday with Black Friday, replaced Sabbath with consumerism. We are a people defined no longer by the grace of Christ but by the consumeristic ways of the world. Cultural critic Daniel Harris has gone so far as to argue that as Christian faith has been displaced, consumerism has taken its place as the one thing that draws us all together: “In a fragmented society in which major institutions like the church and the community no longer play the same role in bringing people together, owning identity possessions becomes one of their chief ways in which we experience community, overcoming our isolation through shared patterns of consumption.”25 Eventually, this kind of society defined by consumerism creates a whole new caste system. Those without smartphones, computers, wireless, the latest technology, a keen fashion sense, or cultural nuance are the lepers of this consumer society.

While not all of us have a business that we can shut down one day a week, we all have the power to take a day a week from spending and purchasing. Such a practice, as difficult as it may seem, not only serves those who work in business but also helps to guard our minds and souls against the corrosive dangers of consumer idolatry. Consumerism, in the end, is the devil’s sacrament. And Black Friday is his liturgy. Black Friday is the Good Friday of consumerism—it is the day that we worship the gods of consumerism, greed, and opulence by atoning for the “sins” of simplicity and locality and generosity by self-indulging in uncontrolled, limitless spending. We need a Good Friday economy in which the bottom line is people. Jesus came to create not a kingdom of slaves to consumerism but a kingdom of friends.

It is said that one in three people is overworked.37 That very well may be true. But this statistic only reflects recorded, scheduled hours where the person is at work. When we live with our world in our pockets—by virtue of the smartphone—we carry our work around with us everywhere we go. In unprecedented fashion, we can work whenever we desire because phones, personal computers, and Wi-Fi go with us wherever we go. Work is now in our pockets. In fact, 75 percent of those who work more than forty hours a week in a white-collar job in America work on the weekends.38 How is this possible? Through the ability to do work from our computers at home or our smartphones.

A Sabbath also questions our commitment to information as a means to salvation. A technological society essentially replaces relationship with information. I wonder whether our ability to consume information is actually alienating us from people. How many times, when a person comes to mind, do we go to Facebook or Instagram to get our information rather than pray for them or call them? Smartphones allow us to get information without having to engage in actual relationships.

I love the words of Wayne Muller: “We are every day becoming aware of the costs of a life without rest. Increasingly, social workers, courts and probation officers are raising our children, rescuing them from the unintentional wasteland of our hyperactivity.”39 We know something is wrong. Deep down, we know that information does not save us. Hyperactivity is not true life. The kind of hyperactivity associated with having the world in our pockets is catching up to us.

Meditate on the words of Richard Swenson: “Chronic overloading is not a spiritual prerequisite for authentic Christianity.”40 We do not need to know everything. Sabbath tells us it is okay. Ignorance can be good.

Sabbath dismantles the tyranny of multitasking. Many in Western society increasingly spend their time multitasking, which is made possible by “time-saving” devices such as washing machines, computers, and dishwashers.41 Eventually, chronic multitasking can lead to what is c...

I told them that the Sabbath was important for them as students, that they should not wait until they had everything figured out to begin Sabbath-keeping.

Sabbath disconnects our technologies so that we might reconnect to our Creator. “Being connected” is not a metaphor new to our technological society—Jesus utilized the metaphor quite powerfully. In John 15 he says we are to be “connected” to the vine.

We keep up with the Kardashians better than we do the Holy Spirit.

Just before takeoff, a flight attendant instructs passengers to put phones on “airplane mode.” I swear, some of my most intimate moments with God have come as I fly across the country in prayer, reflection, and quiet. On occasion, I have caught myself wanting to fly somewhere just so I can go back on airplane mode. That is what hyperactivity does to us.

Consider this Sabbath technology principle: the Sabbath prefers natural light to artificial light.43 Have one day a week free of light bulbs and screens that do not respect natural life rhythms. The Sabbath returns us to natural light—to the established rhythms of God—and honors sunlight over iPhone light.

Relentlessly “eliminate hurry from your life,” writes John Ortberg. “Hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart.”44 If you are hurrying, ask: What drives this?

Have a Netflix-free day. The Psalms invite us to quietly reflect on God’s goodness when we lie on our beds (Ps. 4:4). Binge-watching our favorite show prevents us from following this beautiful instruction.

we are often like Columbus toward other people. We often treat people with respect and dignity so long as they make sense to us or can soon become like us. Should Christ’s love only be extended to those who make sense to us or who look like us? Never. We are sent to love without question.

the sabbatical commands in the Bible would have included everyone: grocery store greeters, adjunct professors, burger flippers, and even the land.

While being sovereign, God is not fully in control of this world. Satan controls the world—for now. God was sovereign during the Holocaust. That is a disturbing paradox

God has willingly given freedom to humans to do the destructive things they do. The truth remains that this is a world ruled by powers of darkness and oppression at present until Christ comes to rule again. Evil exists because God is not yet fully occupying the throne of human authority. That will change. For now, however, we must remember that all the evil and sin in the world is not God’s fault. The devil has his way in this world. Blame for suffering is on his shoulders, not God’s. The world we now see is a world where Satan has his way. No one can say with a straight face that this world looks like a world where God is in control. Rather, this is a world that looks like humanity has abdicated its authority to Satan.

Relating this to the Sabbath, one must not overlook the subtle fact that God instructed both men and women to rest together. God never wanted Adam to rest while Eve slaved away in the kitchen and took out the garbage. In a world hardened by male rule, the command for women to Sabbath is deeply significant and reflects God’s heart.

Broken systems ultimately break people. A broken humanity that listens to and follows the devil’s advice can only make a broken system, and our systems have massive effects on the people who live within them.

We are affected by the systems and environments we create. How can we honestly think that a society without Sabbath will not affect people? Do we really think we can create a society that treats people as commodities, machines, and slaves who never rest and expect that the systems we are creating will not have an impact on us? There is a connection. What if so much of the strife we are experiencing is the result of the lack of Sabbath? I have often wondered whether people in this 24/7 age are more emotionally and psychologically drained than at any other time in history—we say the regrettable, we do the unthinkable, and we are more reticent to forgive. Could it be possible that our exhaustion is driving us all to spiral further down into violence and hopelessness?