An Appeal for Sabbath Rest

Dave Kraft, in his book Leaders Who Last, said he ran across the following quote in a Sunday newspaper:

In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between action and rest. There is a universal refrain: I am so busy. As it all piles endlessly upon itself, the whole experience of being alive begins to melt into one enormous obligation. Sabbath time is a revolutionary challenge to the violence of overwork. Many of us, in our desperate drive to be successful and care for our many responsibilities, feel terrible guilt when we take time to rest.

This year has certainly begun with relentless busyness. In the most recent weeks, the "violence of overwork" has been taking its toll on my body and mind. Rest has been fleeting at best. When I do have a short time to rest, I feel guilty resting and struggle to stay still and just enjoy being docile. It is sad when trying to rest becomes work. God did not design us to live that way and Jesus certainly did not model it. God ordained rest and modeled it for us right from the beginning of Creation. Not because he needed it but because he knew we would. We need Sabbath.

I have come to understand in recent years that I have had a gross misunderstanding of Sabbath. Growing up, I was taught that Sabbath was about a day, Sunday. Sunday was the Lord’s day and you do not work on the Lord’s day. As with many spiritual questions from my youth, the why was typically answered with, “Because God said so.” And because God said so, I have tried to keep Sunday as a day of rest. I protect my Sunday's schedule vehemently. It is a day set aside for corporate worship and intentional rest. A day for long naps and physical rest.  

However, I've learned in recent years that Sabbath is less about a specific day and more about a steady rhythm of living in sync with our Savior. You would have thought it would have clicked with me when Jesus said in Mark 2, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath." Alas, this truth has escaped me for many years and I admit like Agur of Proverbs 30, "...I am too stupid to be human, and I lack common sense." But I digress... As Jesus stated, "the Sabbath is to meet the needs of people." And as followers of Jesus in a chaotic world, Sabbath allows for three things in the life of the believer:

A Cessation from Busyness

Sabbath is an intentional cessation from busyness for the purpose of rest. It is a cessation of not just physical but also mental activity. Admittedly, the physical cessation of movement is the easiest. We plop down into a chair, flip on the TV, grab a book, or listen to music. Our movement has ceased and our minds may be distracted from work but our thoughts are far from being focused on the Father. We may have stopped moving, but we have yet to Sabbath. Sabbath is rest with purpose. It is a time to cease from our physical labors, relinquish our worries and anxieties to the Master of the universe, and rest in the promises and providence of God. Barnes' Notes on the Bible Commentary for Mark 2:27 puts it this way:

The sabbath was made for man - For his rest from toil, his rest from the cares and anxieties of the world, to give him an opportunity to call off his attention from earthly concerns and to direct it to the affairs of eternity. It was a kind provision for man that he might refresh his body by relaxing his labors; that he might have undisturbed time to seek the consolations of religion to cheer him in the anxieties and sorrows of a troubled world; and that he might render to God that homage which is most justly due to him as the Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, and Redeemer of the world. 

 In other words, Sabbath is a cessation from busyness for the purpose of refocusing on the Father. Who he is, what he is doing in us and around us, and what he is going to do for us in the future.

A Refocusing on the Father

The biggest problem that I find with my own busyness is that it keeps me laser-focused on me. As a high-capacity leader, I have to protect my time. I have to complete my tasks. I have to take care of my people and provide for my family. Me, me, me, me, me. I, I, I, I, I. It's all about me. Until I get to the end of me and realize there is not enough of me to go around. I am not omnipotent, God is. I am not omnipresent, God is. Sabbath is a return to refocusing on the fact that I am just a steward of all the things I am responsible for. From the people to the family, to the finances, it is all on loan to me from my heavenly Father and I am to honor him with it and through it.

The Psalmist beckons in Psalm 46, “Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” You can cease from your labors and take time to honor God with the things he has given, or he can take the things he has given and give you back the time you spent with those things to reconsider honoring him with them. He will be honored throughout the world and through all things. This time of being still before God is a time of preparation. It is a time to get us prepared physically, spiritually, and emotionally to return to our calling and perform our work as an act of worship to the Father.

A Preparation for Work as Worship

Paul says in Colossians 3:

16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Colossians 3:16-17

Notice the order of activity in these verses. Relationship with Christ comes first. We immerse ourselves in the richness of the good news of the gospel and it permeates every aspect of our lives. Second, we build each other up as believers and spend time worshipping together (sounds like a Sunday gathering doesn't it?) Finally, we go out into all the world and do and say all as representatives of Jesus Christ. 

We need a paradigm shift in how we view the direction of our outputs in relation to our Sabbath rhythms. All of us clearly see in the creation account that God rested on the seventh day. His work of creation being accomplished, God rested. We miss that man was created on the sixth day and prior to man doing any work at all, he rested and Sabbathed with God. He spent time in communion and relationship with God before he ever put his hand to the proverbial plow. This is what work as worship truly looks like. Having been filled with the love, mercy, hope, generosity, and joy of God, the work we put our hands and minds to spills out of that overflow as a thank offering to the giver of all good things.

Conclusion

As I stated in the beginning, I am learning that Sabbath is more than a day, it's a rhythm for living out your days to the glory of God the Father. That rhythm has been off in recent weeks. All the busyness has shifted my focus away from my purpose and towards my problems. It's sickening really. And it's exhausting. This article is my confession. It is also a reminder to myself and possibly to others of you out there reading this. We need rest. We need Sabbath.