Sabbath Rest

Author Renita Weems, wrote some of the most beautiful words to describe Sabbath Rest in her book Listening for God. “I still believed it was enough to spend six days a week trying to eke out a living, worrying about whether you were ahead or behind, fretting over the future, despairing over whether life would ever get better…Six days of worrying were enough. The Sabbath was the Lord’s Day, a momentary cease-fire in our ongoing struggle to survive and an opportunity to surrender ourselves to the rest only God offered. Come Sunday, we set aside our worries about the mundane and renewed our love affair with eternity.”

Set aside our worries about the mundane and renew our love affair with eternity. That strikes a chord in me. If the world lived in Sabbath rest, even one day a week, what a difference it might make in realigning our perspective on the struggles and dashed expectations and our incessant battle to be heard. Sabbath has its roots in God resting on the seventh day after working hard for six days to create the world. It was a day to sit back and reflect, to observe all that he had made, to savor it, and to let it be.

For me, Sabbath rest is about abiding and dwelling deeply with God, with myself, and with those I love. And it doesn’t have to fall on a given day, although that’s a nice rhythm of rest. It also takes form each day when I stop to reflect, to listen, to let my day be done and to let it be what it has been without judgement. I also dwell with God in Sabbath Rest when I take time each month to meet with my spiritual director. Here I bring my experiences together, spreading them out as offering, looking at it all, and savoring where God is inviting me to explore, or to let go of something.

Sabbath rest acknowledges that the creative process of living involves both chaos and deconstruction, even as I experience peace and turn toward reconstruction. Sabbath rest is the deep sigh and silence we come to in the midst of the psalms that whispers, “Selah.” Sabbath creates space between what was and what will be by pausing and making space now for what is, and receiving it all as gift from the hands of our good, gracious, and generous God.

How are you making time for a cease-fire in your life? Where and when do you practice sabbath rest? Contact me to find out about the possibilities of spiritual direction as a regular practice of Sabbath Rest.